


Ajisa

by dbzkink



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Adult Dende, Alien Biology, Alien Cultural Differences, Alien Culture, Alien Sex, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Drunken Confessions, Drunken Flirting, Drunken Kissing, Drunkenness, Eventual Smut, Falling In Love, Gay, Gay Sex, Love Confessions, M/M, Miscommunication, Misunderstandings, Namekian Biology, Namekian Culture, No underage nonsense here, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Oral Sex, Planet Namek, Romance, Shameless Smut, Smut, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:55:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 37,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26428990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dbzkink/pseuds/dbzkink
Summary: Piccolo is secretly in love with Dende, so when Dende asks him to come along on a trip to New Namek for the Ajisa Harvest Festival, Piccolo can't refuse. Piccolo's too embarrassed of his ignorance to ask many questions, so once the harvest and the festivities start, Piccolo is left trying to figure out a lot more than he imagined.
Relationships: Dende/Piccolo (Dragon Ball)
Comments: 54
Kudos: 31





	1. An Invitation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ConceptCat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConceptCat/gifts), [Minos336](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minos336/gifts).



> Gay/Alien sex and biology ahead, turn back now if that's not for you!
> 
> Dende is a full-blown adult and has been for a while when this is set (after DB Super sometime). He is still very short. So there is no underage/pedophilia here.
> 
> I have a pretty elaborate Namek biology head-canon about how they mate. Nameks are all true biological hermaphrodites, meaning they can mate as both male and female, not meant in the pejorative sense long applied to intersex humans by ignorant and bigoted doctors and parents. They all have dicks and testicles, but right behind their testicles they have a tightly closed slit (it looks like a scar to the untrained eye) that leads to their "theadur" which is their female reproduction path. Theadurs don't need or have lubrication but are instead lined with a special velvety material that allows things to slip around. Theadur sex is considered sacred amongst Nameks and is how they pair-bond. Pair-bonded Nameks are called atheanna. Nameks are very fertile and don't always want to pair-bond, so anal sex is common and normal amongst Nameks. Messing around in theadurs is done, but is definitely considered taboo and "slutty" by more traditional Nameks.
> 
> This is for my Snailpack on Twitter. To join the Snailpack, follow me @dbzkink on Twitter :D
> 
> A special thanks to ConceptCat who asked what the Namekians do with all that ajisa they grow and draws sexy Nameks and to Minos336 for making so many steamy, sexy drawings of my stories!

“Ajisa? What’s ajisa?” Piccolo said.

Dende’s eyes widened and he said, “Oh, yes, I forget sometimes that you have no knowledge of Namek—“

Piccolo interrupted, frowning, “That’s maybe a bit extreme, I have some kno—“

Dende waved his hand dismissively at Piccolo and said, “I didn’t mean to insult you, Piccolo. Only that you didn’t grow up there. Ajisa is the beautiful purple crop we grow. I tried to grow it here, but it didn’t thrive.”

“Why do you want _me_ to go with you to the Ajisa Harvest Festival?” Piccolo asked and hoped it didn’t sound insulting.

Fail. It obviously had. Dende’s eyes dropped and he said, “You certainly don’t have to if it doesn’t appeal to you.”

Why couldn’t Piccolo make it through one conversation without upsetting Dende lately? The past year or so, Piccolo tripped all over himself in Dende’s presence. Every time they interacted, the little, handsome Namek turned Piccolo into a blathering mess. As Dende had turned from a young man into a true adult, Piccolo had been drawn to the Lookout more and more the past several years not out of any distaste for Earth, but out of a desire to spend more time with Dende.

But it didn’t matter what Piccolo wanted because he always fucked it up. He wished he could just take Dende in his arms and kiss him until he understood how Piccolo felt. Speaking was not Piccolo’s forte. But Dende would never see him like that. Piccolo was basically an elder to Dende. A curmudgeon to be kind to, but nothing more. Certainly not someone special. Not like that.

Piccolo sighed and said, “That isn’t what I said. I…I was just surprised that you’d want to take me along. You know how they feel about me on New Namek. And…I…well…you’ve been going a lot on your own since Goku taught you to IT. So I, um, I assumed there was…someone…you’d meet at the festival.”

Dende’s eyes snapped up to Piccolo’s and his cheeks turned violet. “Oh…well…no…not, not anymore. I always wish you’d come with me but you haven’t come at all in the past few months.”

“They hate me, it’s awkward sometimes. Nail’s ex fucking slapped me the last time I went.”

“Piccolo, you teased him that Nail was always _inside_ you. What did you expect? If you wouldn’t antagonize them, they wouldn’t hate you.”

“I…It’s just my nature, Dende.”

“The Ajisa Harvest Festival is the perfect opportunity. No one has any cares during the harvest. I promise.”

“Okay, as long as I won’t…ruin…anything for you.”

Dende’s brows crashed together and his eyes filled. “No. There is nothing left to ruin.”

Piccolo wanted to hug Dende, but he didn’t know if that sort of thing was appropriate. Did friends hug? Piccolo hesitantly pulled Dende into his arms and said softly, “I’m sorry it didn’t work out, Dende. Their loss.”

Dende was so stiff that Piccolo assumed he’d fucked up. But with sudden ferocity, Dende’s arms flew around Piccolo and he squeezed Piccolo tightly. Piccolo felt his lithe body shaking with tears. Piccolo murmured, “Do you…um…do you want to talk about it?” as he rubbed Dende’s back.

Dende shook his head against Piccolo’s chest. Piccolo wanted to stay like this forever, but with Dende loving him, not crying over some other shit of a Namek. Who would break up with Dende? “Who was it?”

“Ulitka. Of course. Surely you knew that.”

“I did not. I knew there was someone, but I didn’t know who,” Piccolo said, maintaining their embrace, “You can do better than Ulitka, Dende. You deserve better.”

Dende’s bitter laughter surprised Piccolo. “I don't want anyone else anyway. I didn't even really want him. Which is what he said when he broke it off.”

“Um…why…why were you dating him if you didn’t want him? And why are you sad? Sorry if I’m being a dick. I’m pretty bad at this kind of thing,” Piccolo said, wondering if it was too weird to tell someone that you were trying your best, but would probably fuck it up anyway.

“You’re not being a dick, Piccolo. Nor are you bad at this. No. I…It doesn’t matter. I’m pleased you’ll go with me to the festival. It’s tomorrow, we should leave at dawn. Sorry for the late notice.”

“No problem. No one seems intent on destroying the world or the universe lately, so I have a lot of free time,” Piccolo said with a smirk. “Um…what should I wear?”

“Oh! May I?” Dende gestured to their antennae.

Piccolo gulped and nodded, pushing all his love and lust and hunger to the very darkest corner of his mind so Dende wouldn’t inadvertently catch a whiff of Piccolo’s desperation for the little Namek to notice him as a mate prospect.

Dende rose up on his toes, but giggled. “You still need to bend down, Piccolo, I’m very short.”

“You’re perfect,” Piccolo said without thinking and felt his cheeks burn. He was such a fool. There was nowhere to go but down if he opened his mouth again, so he kept it shut.

Dende’s eyes went wide as Piccolo bent to brush their antennae together so Dende could show him the proper attire for the festival. Piccolo usually dressed in his Earthling clothes or his gi, but he always stuck out. He would stick out no matter what with his Demon Clan features and his absurd height. At least this way he might not embarrass Dende any more than usual. 

Dende’s cheeks bloomed with a second wash of purple and his breathing sped up as he leaned into the very light _peluwsa._ His hands came out of the hug and rested on Piccolo’s forearms.

Piccolo’s eyelids slid shut with pleasure that he knew he shouldn’t feel. But in the last moment of sight, he swore Dende’s eyelids fluttered. Maybe if nothing else this felt nice for the little Namek Guardian of Earth. Maybe Piccolo could at least offer Dende physical gratification, even if he would never _be_ with Piccolo.

Piccolo let a little more hope fill his chest when Dende seemed reluctant to pull away. His hands slid up Piccolo’s arms. He held tight to Piccolo’s biceps. Piccolo loved the feeling of their bare skin together. Dende lowered himself down and the connection was broken. Piccolo knew how to dress now, but he didn’t know how to act. The _peluwsa_ was more intense than he’d expected with such a perfunctory act.

Dende’s cheeks were even more flushed, his breathing a little faster, and he laughed. “Piccolo, your mind is like a dungeon. Everything but the very front was behind iron and stone. What secrets are you worried I’ll see?”

Piccolo’s mouth went dry. He hadn’t even considered the fact that Dende would notice Piccolo’s reticence. Dende’s mind was like a sunlit field, though there were dark copses of trees where the little Namek likely hid his private thoughts. But overall, Piccolo liked being in Dende’s mind. It was so peaceful. Unlike his own apparently dark and oozy and claustrophobic mind.

Piccolo startled, realizing that Dende actually expected him to answer. “Oh, um, nothing. I guess? I’m just…I…nobody does that with me.”

“Oh, I suppose not. I'm sorry, it’s so…casual...for me. Have you…have you done it at all?” Dende said with his eyebrows coming up. Piccolo thought he looked hopeful.

Piccolo’s face heated again. Good gods, could he stop blushing for even one exchange? Piccolo didn’t want Dende to think he was some kind of blushing virgin, even if for this particular act that was the case. Piccolo grumbled, “No, well, I…yeah, I did it briefly with Nail. But that…it was just preparation.”

“Oh, well, sometime we should do it again, Piccolo, but more…freely,” Dende said and cocked his head to the side, like he wanted to see Piccolo from a different angle. A small smile tugged at his lips.

“What does that mean?” Piccolo said, the hope burning brighter.

“You would need to relax, for starters. It’s not just your mind that feels like iron and stone. Your whole body feels like a bunch of beautifully carven rocks strapped together with steel bands,” Dende said and smiled more broadly. A little dimple showed on one side that Piccolo had never seen before. Piccolo wanted to see it more. Piccolo wanted to make that dimple appear every single day.

“Yeah…I’m not…not great at relaxing,” Piccolo said, confused. Had Dende just complimented Piccolo's body while calling him uptight?

Dende giggled. “I know. You’re terrible at it. You will tomorrow. You’ll like relaxing. You might do it more once you’ve tried it. Once you’ve had a taste,” Dende said and his eyes sparkled. Piccolo, of course, blushed again, reading more into that statement than Dende meant. Hope never got Piccolo anywhere, but he seemed unable to stop having it.

* * *

The light of the half-moon made the Lookout glimmer as Piccolo tapped down, waiting for Dende to come out to greet him. Piccolo felt slimy. After his encounter with Dende the day before, he’d been antsy and eager to bury his sorrow and loneliness. So he went to a bar.

Piccolo could drink a lot before he got wasted, so he wasn’t hung over. But he’d picked someone up. The man was nice enough, but Piccolo had been so disappointed in the sex that it felt like he had some kind of mediocre-sex-hangover. Worse than the partial hangover was his burning shame. Piccolo had never been ashamed of having one-night-stands before, but he’d woken full of regret and self-loathing. The hook-up had also done the opposite of help sate the lust that Dende’s brief _peluwsa_ touch stoked in Piccolo: now he longed for Dende even more. Which he was ashamed of too, he needed to stop thinking of Dende this way. Dende would never be interested in a dumb brute like Piccolo. Though Ulitka was a fucking moron, not least for dumping Dende, so maybe Dende favored an idiotic partner.

Piccolo used magic to dress himself so that he would blend in with the ceremonial garb of the traditional Namekians that lived in Dende’s home village. Nameks from all over had come back to New Namek, which had a much more hospitable climate than their former home. Other aliens settled too. 

The Nameks who’d come directly from the planet Frieza destroyed were much more conservative and traditional than their space-nomad brethren. Over the past few years as the population grew, there had been conflict between the two groups leading the more conservative Nameks to live in insular villages. Dende’s family were among this group, though some returning Nameks joined them too. The village was up to a few hundred people, but almost everyone knew everyone else. And all of them knew Nail. Missed Nail. Resented Piccolo.

Piccolo vacillated between being a complete dick about it and being solicitous and trying to blend in as much a seven-foot behemoth could blend in anywhere. Today was a blend-in day. For Dende. Who looked fucking fantastic. Unlike most traditional Namek-mage garb, this was fairly skimpy. He wore a bright, saturated blue vest, but short, and what were essentially Bermuda shorts in the same color. They weren’t tight, but well-fitted, so when he turned back to go get something, Piccolo almost groaned to see his pert little ass, which was normally hidden in the saggy, baggy Kami robes. Dende wore odd little flat shoes that looked almost like human ballet slippers, so Piccolo adjusted his footwear to match.

Even though Dende looked so hot Piccolo was sweating, he felt ridiculous in the same attire. He hoped Dende appreciated how uncomfortable all New Namek journeys were for Piccolo and that the _only_ reason he ever went to that wretched place was to spend time with Dende. To try in vain, again and again, to garner some notice from his small companion. Piccolo knew he should stop going on these trips which were always torturous, but he hated disappointing Dende.

“Thank you for coming, Piccolo! I’m so glad you’re going with me!” Dende said brightly, joining Piccolo. He had a whole mesh bag filled with what looked like artisanal growlers, the glass etched with Namek runes and…and naked Nameks. Piccolo looked away so his absurd blushing didn’t start quite this early in the day. What were those for?

“Yeah, no problem. It’ll be fun that I get to actually hang out with you instead of you running off with Ulitka or Cargo right away.”

Piccolo’s eyes widened as Dende wrapped his bare, free arm around one of Piccolo’s. He giggled and said, “Oh dear, Piccolo, were you jealous of Ulitka getting my attention?”

Piccolo could see from Dende’s big grin that he was kidding. Piccolo’s tiny flame of hope was extinguished. It truly never occurred to Dende that Piccolo cared for him. Piccolo muttered, “Yeah, something like that,” and took a deep breath.

When they didn’t immediately teleport to New Namek, Piccolo glanced down at Dende. Dende scrutinized Piccolo, his expression unreadable. Piccolo met his eyes and Dende’s seemed to bore into his to the point where Piccolo wanted to squirm away from the intensity of it. But he didn’t. He held the dark, level gaze of his friend, and tried to see into Dende’s soul too. Tried to see if there was any chink in the wall that Piccolo could start chipping away at to get inside.

Dende squeezed Piccolo’s arm, pressing it against his chest and abs. “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” Piccolo answered, though he felt completely unprepared. Completely adrift. Completely in love.


	2. Ulitka

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: Ulitka means snail in Russian. Toriyama gives the Nameks snail names, so I decided to do that even though I have a pattern of naming them after sharp things (I get that Nail is from sNail, but hey, artistic license).

Piccolo wasn’t even a little surprised that people stopped and gaped when Dende and Piccolo appeared in the middle of the village. Teleporting did that to people. Normally once they registered the person, they went about their business, but Dende had Piccolo with him. A hulking, enormous, unwelcome green beast. Gazes darkened and narrowed. Murmurings to the younger Nameks about the thief of Namek’s greatest warrior: the Demon King Piccolo, enslaver of the true hero, Nail.

Nail blended so seamlessly into Piccolo’s consciousness he felt wounded that his kin were so cruel and hateful towards him. Then he remembered they were not _his_ kin, or at least they saw Piccolo’s mind as separate from Nail’s. But that lingering emotional response from the Nailish part of him was tiny in comparison to Piccolo’s urge to earn his title and blast them all into oblivion. To show them exactly how demonic he could be.

“Lord of Lords, Piccolo, every time I think you could not possibly be any tenser, you prove me wrong. Relax,” Dende muttered.

Piccolo tried his best, but Piccolo truly sucked at letting go. Piccolo didn’t think he’d ever been at ease in his life. Dende’s body went rigid, still holding Piccolo’s arm, and the villagers’ eyes crawled over them. Burning, blushing shame coursed through Piccolo that poor Dende had to touch Piccolo to get him here, and thus be seen by his peers holding Piccolo’s arm like this. Dende undoubtedly realized the same thing and had gotten tense too.

When Dende continued to cling to Piccolo’s arm like a barnacle, Piccolo glanced down to see what was going on with his little friend. Dende’s face was pallid, his eyes riveted on something to Piccolo’s left. Piccolo followed Dende’s gaze where it landed on a Namek. _Oh_. Not just any Namek, but Ulitka.

Piccolo had no idea what Dende saw in Ulitka. He was frumpy and dour, he always had a snotty retort for everything Piccolo had ever said in his presence. He was conservative too, and Piccolo had a growing sense that Dende was irritated at his family and village’s reticence about joining the modern Namek community. The modern universe.

Ulitka approached them in his dumpy way, frowning. Piccolo waited for Dende to let go of his arm. Dende clung to it, his claws biting into Piccolo’s flesh. Was Dende scared of Ulitka? Piccolo might have to kick Ulitka’s ass. He wanted to kick Ulitka’s ass, all he needed was the go ahead from Dende.

“Well, Dende, I didn’t expect to see you back so soon,” Ulitka said and Piccolo wondered whether Dende would be angry if Piccolo punched Ulitka right in his probably-kissed-Dende mouth.

Dende’s voice was impersonal and flat as he said, “Ulitka. How’ve you been?”

“Fine. We’ve got a good crop this year. I see you brought…a beast of burden,” Ulitka said and looked Piccolo up and down. Piccolo wished the twerp would make a pass at him so he could shoot him down, loudly and publicly. 

“Rather be that than just a burden,” Piccolo said with a big smile down at the smaller man. Ulitka was a warrior, but not the sort that would stand a chance against Piccolo. Not that any sort of warrior on Namek stood a chance against Piccolo.

“Oh? You mean like the sort of person who might drag down an entire society with their selfish desire to be stronger, using even the most taboo means? That sort of burden?” Ulitka snarked.

Piccolo shrugged. “Taboo is all in the eyes of the beholder.” Piccolo turned back to Dende, still fastened to his arm, “So? You going to show me the ajisa ropes, Dende? You have to train beasts of burden sometimes, but the good ones catch on quickly.”

Ulitka snorted and said, “Dende, I hoped we might—“

“Sorry, I really ought to say hello to Cargo and Moori and then I do have a lot to teach Piccolo before the sun is fully in the sky and we begin. Enjoy the festival! Nice to see you!” Dende said and scampered off, dragging Piccolo by his arm.

“Dende, what the hell was that—“

“Ooo, the nerve of that…that…that… _asshole_ ,” Dende said. Piccolo’s eyebrows shot up. Dende hardly ever used English profanity. Piccolo liked it, and a helpless grin spread on his face. Dende noticed and cried, “It’s not funny!”

“No, not that. He’s definitely an asshole. You’re just so cute when you swear,” Piccolo said and nudged Dende with the elbow Dende held captive.

Dende blushed and the tension seemed to drain out of his body. He released Piccolo’s arm. Piccolo’s smile faded without that contact. He said, “Why are you so mad at him? I thought you didn’t want to be with him?”

Dende shook his head hard enough that his antennae swung. “It’s…Nothing. I…It doesn’t matter.”

“I’m not going to judge you, Dende. I’m not like…like these guys. What happened? You seem really upset.”

They’d made it far enough away from the town square that they were mostly alone. A few people in identical outfits passed them on their way back to the festival, but none were going the way Piccolo and Dende were headed, leaving a wake of craned necks. Eyes followed Piccolo’s lumbering form.

“Look…it’s…” Dende trailed off and huffed out another shaky breath. “No. It’s too…humiliating. It would shame me to tell you.”

“There’s really nothing you could say that would shock me, Dende. I think you think I’m more…naïve…than I am.”

Dende’s eyes flitted up to Piccolo’s. They stopped in the street. No one was around. Dende searched Piccolo’s eyes. His eyes cut away and he said, “Ulitka and I hadn’t been very…physical…because that was the way _he_ wanted it. He felt that we should wait and see if we were compatible. Wait and see if we wanted to become _atheannas_ ,” Dende took a big breath and continued on, though he wouldn’t look at Piccolo, “Then all of a sudden a couple weeks ago, he started…pressuring me…to become _atheannas_ when he seemed like he would rather just…be physical.”

Dende started walking again. He looked over both his shoulders, as if to make sure no one was following or listening. “I instigated that, because to be honest, I found the idea of becoming _atheannas_ absurd. There is a lot of physicality and compatibility to explore between…between…a first date and _atheanna_. To spare you the details, it did not go well. It was…horrible. And then…then…” Dende trailed off into a growl, his face contorting into a grimace, “He didn’t even apologize! He broke up with me! And revealed that the only reason he’d even been pushing me was because he heard from someone that I’d been with Scythe, so he figured he could get some too!” Dende’s body shook he was so angry.

Piccolo stopped, grabbing Dende’s arm. “Wait, what? Did he hurt you?”

“Yes!” Dende’s eyes were glassy and red.

“And then fucking _dumped_ you?”

“Yes!” Dende croaked and a few tears rolled down his cheeks. He swiped at them frantically, turning away from Piccolo again.

“Dende, that fucking _sucks_. And he low-key implied you should be ashamed or something about sleeping with Scythe?”

“It was not low-key. He said that I ought to have been _loose,_ Piccolo. That was his excuse for hurting me! He said it shouldn’t have hurt me because of that! He used that word! He said he’d only been waiting because he thought I was a prude, but once he’d realized that I didn’t want to be _atheannas_ with him and that I was a…a…a…slut—that’s what he called me—he wanted to get some…some…some…” Dende’s sobs choked the words out of his throat for a minute before he gasped, “some return on investment!”

Piccolo didn’t think about hugging Dende this time. He crushed his friend in his big arms and held him while he cried. Dende’s muffled voice said, “And then to…to…to suggest I shouldn’t be able to come to the biggest festival of the year in my own home village just because he dumped me?! I…It’s just…It’s just…hurtful!”

Piccolo took several deep breaths as his chi tried to soar. He wanted to murder Ulitka. Slowly murder. He wanted to eviscerate Ulitka and make him eat his own entrails. Who would ever _hurt_ Dende emotionally, but _physically_? It was monstrous. Dende was a sweet, loving creature. The fact that fucking _Ulitka_ would use him this way made Piccolo’s blood turn to acid.

Piccolo said, his own voice barely steady, “He is a fucking syphilis-riddled douchebag. I’m so sorry. That’s awful, Dende. Do you want me to mess him up? I think I could do it without killing him.”

Dende’s snotty laughter against his chest relaxed Piccolo some. “No, no, it’s tempting, but no. I just…It’s not that I thought we’d be _atheannas_ , because he was right, that was not what I wanted. I just thought it would be nice to have someone to, you know, be with for a bit. Why do some people think it’s so wrong? Gods,” Dende said, his tears dying away as anger replaced his hurt.

Piccolo didn’t know anything about Namekians ideas about sex. He said, “Do…is that…are Nameks here seriously anti-sex?”

“Yes. Especially for mages. It isn’t as horrific as the patriarchy on Earth, but there is an unspoken belief that chastity is virtue for a mage, but that warriors can’t help their baser urges.” Dende snorted derisively. 

“That’s some bullshit, Dende. Here I thought without the gender divide there wouldn’t be the same nonsense on Namek.”

Dende’s shoulders slumped as they neared his family’s home. “I don’t want to see them.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to see my family. They were so hopeful that Ulitka and I would…would pair-bond. Moori loves Ulitka. I can’t face them. I haven’t told them we split, but then…then if they…if they ask why. Oh gods. Would you…would you be willing to go to the bigger harvest festival? It’s outside Yapuural, so we’d be near the city. Less people would know you so you wouldn’t have to put up with that idiocy. It will still be fun. Likely more fun than here.”

“I’ll go wherever you want to go, Dende. I’m just here to hang out with you. I don’t give a shit about the festival,” Piccolo said, smirking at his friend.

Dende’s eyebrows knit together and he stammered, “Y…You…That’s…You came to spend time with me?”

Piccolo knew Dende was smart, brilliant even, so sometimes the Goku-level obtuseness surprised him. He laughed. “Yeah, of course. Why else would I come to New Namek? You’re the only reason I’ve _ever_ come to New Namek.”

“But…but…I…Piccolo…I often just…just abandon you to go…” Dende spluttered, at a loss for words. He took a deep breath and searched Piccolo’s eyes. “I’m so sorry. I thought you wanted to be more in touch with your heritage. I never would have gone off without you had I known you were…um…that you wished to spend time with _me_.”

A little snort of laughter escaped Piccolo. He said, “Let’s go to fucking Yapuural and have a great time, yeah? Fuck that little twat. You deserve better, Dende. Or at least someone better in bed.” Piccolo chuckled as Dende purpled. Piccolo said, against his heart’s wishes, “And you can probably find someone who isn’t incompetent in bed in Yapuural, if you’re in the mood.”

Dende said quietly, “So you…you…you don’t think ill of me for…for what I did?”

“For what? Expecting someone to apologize if they tear up your ass while fucking you? Of course not. He’s a fucking prick and a bad partner. There’s no excuse for that.”

Dende’s eyebrows scrunched together again. “No…not that. You don’t think…you don’t disapprove of me…doing it at all?”

“Why would I disapprove of you having _sex_? Sex is fun. Or it should be. If you’re doing it right. And with someone fun. Not with a selfish douche. I like having sex, why would I judge you for it?”

Dende’s eyes widened. He stammered, “You…but…I…Who do you have sex with?”

“Kind of a personal question for someone who regularly ditches me to go get laid.”

Dende was aghast and said, “I…only…That is not—“

Piccolo chortled merrily and said, “I’m kidding, Dende, I’m kidding. What do you mean who do I have sex with? Which time? I don’t have a boyfriend right now, if that’s what you mean.”

Dende’s mouth fell open and he said, “But…but there aren’t any Nameks on Earth. Have you…have you been, um, doing it here?"

“What?! No! Fuck, no, of course not. That would be…weird,” Piccolo said, not knowing how else to explain that he had never gotten laid on New Namek because the only person he wanted to sleep with was off with a complete shithead.

“Are you not attracted to Nameks?” Dende asked, his color draining away.

“What? No, gods, no, just…everyone hates me, remember? I think I’d have a pretty rough time finding a Namek that wanted to fuck me,” Piccolo said, feeling despondent, wishing the Namek in front of him wanted to fuck Piccolo. Piccolo knew if Dende just gave him a chance in bed, he would at least love fucking Piccolo, even if he didn’t love Piccolo.

Dende said, “Hmm…No, I don’t think so, Piccolo. But let’s go to Yapuural. If nothing else, I do think we’ll have a lovely time at the festival and who knows, maybe we’ll both get lucky?” Dende’s little smirk set Piccolo’s blood ablaze.

Piccolo once again considered just kissing Dende to express his feelings, but instead he tensed up like an idiot when Dende grabbed his arm and teleported them to Yapuural. Dende squeezed his arm and said, “Who knew someone so tense could ever even _manage_ to have sex?” Dende poked a finger into Piccolo’s side.

Piccolo, unwilling to let Dende entertain the idea of Piccolo as a stiff lay quipped, “First of all, I’m not tense in bed. Second, I’m a top, it’s much easier to be a tense top.”

Dende’s eyes skittered up and down Piccolo’s body, thrilling Piccolo with possibility. Dende said, “Hmm…well, I’ll believe you can relax when I see it with my own eyes. Or feel it with my own hands.” Dende giggled a little and squeezed Piccolo’s arm.

Piccolo laughed and teased, “You coming on to me, Dende? You need rebound that can show you how it should be done?”

Dende smirked up at Piccolo, clutched his arm tighter, and purred, “Oh? Would you show me how it should be done? Think you could remind me that sex _is_ fun?”

“I’ve never had any complaints,” Piccolo said lightly and turned to smirk back, but he was surprised to find Dende’s face looked…hungry. Piccolo continued, unsure what to make of the way Dende was looking at him, with his arm still wrapped around Piccolo’s, “So…what the hell is ajisa? Why do they harvest it?”

“Oh, you’ll see. I want it to be a surprise. Come on, I can hear they’re starting to sing the song that signals the beginning of the harvest,” Dende said. Dende’s hand slid into Piccolo’s, his delicate fingers lacing between Piccolo’s big ones and Piccolo struggled to calm his racing heart.


	3. The Harvest Begins

Dende retrieved a couple short, curved blades used for harvesting ajisa and Piccolo watched him interact with the other Nameks, so at ease and friendly. Piccolo stayed back so Dende could enjoy the harvest. Even though Piccolo was less well known outside Dende’s village, he was still a bit of a mythological figure both for his role in Frieza’s defeat, and, of course, for committing the taboo of fusing with Nail. Piccolo snorted. Nail _liked_ being part of Piccolo. They were better together. They were the perfect Namek warrior. It frustrated him to no end that the Nameks continued to treat him as though he’d gobbled Nail up like a voracious parasite.

Dende handed Piccolo the blade and Piccolo thought Dende’s fingers lingered on Piccolo’s. Piccolo knew he needed to get ahold of himself and his hope. Even if he seduced Dende today, that would be all it would be. Dende needed solace after that asshole Ulitka’s shitty behavior, and Piccolo would give Dende anything. He would do anything to make Dende happy, even if he broke his own heart in the process. Piccolo's heart broke every day he went without Dende, so he saw sleeping with Dende, even just once, as a slight improvement to his current condition.

“Why the long face, Piccolo? We haven’t even started. Are you bored already? I know nothing I do is as exciting as fighting,” Dende said and gestured for Piccolo to follow him. Dende shifted the net bag of growlers to be strapped on his back. He looked like a sexy snail. Piccolo reached and tugged at the strap. “What? Oh!” Dende cried as Piccolo lifted it off Dende’s wiry frame and bound it around Piccolo’s much larger one.

“I’m used to my weighted training gear, I won’t even notice this. That way you can show me stuff. And I’m not bored. I don’t want it to be exciting like fighting. I do plenty of fighting, so it’s nice to have a change of pace. What are these for anyway?”

“You are just resistant to surprises, aren’t you?”

“Given that most of the surprises in my life have tried to kill me, yeah, I am,” Piccolo said with a chuckle.

Dende smiled up at him and said, “Then let today be your introduction to _pleasant_ surprises.”

Piccolo’s cheeks burned and he looked ahead to avoid Dende seeing the passion and hunger Piccolo knew must show in his eyes. The big ajisa trees loomed before them. Piccolo always thought the Nameks just liked the ajisa aesthetically. Until Dende’s invitation the day before, he hadn’t even known what they were called, let alone that they had a purpose.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen them this completely laden. They’re beautiful,” Piccolo said.

“Aren’t they?”

Huge, cured wood tubs, like classy versions of the above-ground pools he sometimes saw on Earth, were scattered around the forest. Half-barrels were stacked amongst the trees. An ancient looking Namek rose high in the sky and projected his voice, prattling on at length in Namekian. Piccolo wanted to get on with the harvest so maybe he and Dende could go grab dinner and a drink in Yapuural afterwards…maybe more.

All the Namekians (except Piccolo, of course, the lone impostor) shouted a word. Everyone was smiling and delighted as they took to the air, grabbing a half barrel on the way, using a leather strap on each to loop it over their shoulder. Dende took Piccolo’s hand again and Piccolo blushed. They each chose a barrel and even as they lifted off the ground, Dende held Piccolo’s hand. 

“Here, I’ll show you the technique, not that it’s an art form, but the sooner we get the tubs full, the sooner the fun part starts,” Dende said, his big goofy grin warming Piccolo’s heart.

Dende began a quick flicking motion with the blade while holding the lush purple fruits away from the heavier branch. He continued explaining as he adeptly filled his barrel, “Try to leave enough stem to pull it when we dump into the vats, but not so much that they’re poking into all the other ajisa and taking up all the space.”

Piccolo picked up physical things quickly. If only he picked up social stuff the same way maybe he wouldn’t be such a bumbling idiot all the time around Dende. They each had a full barrel in no time. Dende took Piccolo’s elbow and led him down to one of the huge tubs. They rapidly de-stemmed their fruit and tossed them into the growing mass of fruits. All the Nameks throwing in their own fruit looked absolutely giddy.

Piccolo said, as they floated back up to get more, “Can you eat them?”

“Oh, yes! Of course, here,” Dende plucked a big, violet fruit and slashed it in half, handing one of the pieces to Piccolo.

Piccolo bit into it and juice dribbled down his chin. It was sloppier than he expected from how firm it felt. The taste reminded him most of Earth honey, but with a delicious tangy flavor on the end unlike anything he’d ever experienced, but maybe closest to an Earth raspberry mixed with cantaloupe.

Dende’s chin was covered in the almost opaque, paint-like juice and the vivid fantasy Piccolo had of licking his chin clean before slipping his tongue into Dende’s mouth almost made Piccolo hard. He took a deep breath and finished eating the fruit. He tried to lick his chin clean, but his tongue wasn’t quite long enough.

Before his he could wipe the juice away, Dende’s delicate fingers brushed his chin. Dende sucked the purple mess off them and Piccolo prayed to all levels of gods not to get an erection upon seeing that. Was Dende doing it on purpose? Two could play that game. Piccolo curled his finger under Dende’s chin and smeared the ajisa’s leavings onto them. He licked his fingers one at a time, staring into Dende’s eyes.

Dende said, “Well? How did it taste?”

“I like the juice best,” Piccolo said, unable to resist the subtle flirtation.

Dende ran the middle knuckle of his forefinger along the underside of Piccolo's lower lip and popped it in his mouth. He smirked and said, “Ajisa is messy, but that’s half the fun.”

Piccolo grinned and said, “Yeah, I can see that.”

Their hands were a blur as they slashed and tossed the fruits, descending together again to de-stem, and rising again into the increasingly bare trees. After only a couple hours, the big tub that Piccolo and Dende were contributing to was full to the brim. Only now did Piccolo notice that it was on a pedestal with a metal drum underneath with a tap on it. So they made some kind of drink out of it. Obviously. That would explain the growlers. Piccolo hated how slow he was sometimes; it made him more sympathetic to Goku.

They were de-stemming the last few fruits and Dende sliced another in half and offered it to Piccolo. Piccolo made an even bigger mess of himself this time and a stream of juice trickled down his neck. The minute he’d finished putting the last piece of the fruit in his mouth, Dende dove forward and dragged his tongue up Piccolo’s throat, following the purple trail all the way to the bottom of Piccolo’s lip. He took Piccolo’s lower lip between his teeth and Piccolo’s arms wrapped around Dende’s lithe body of their own accord.

Dende released his lip and pulled back, breathing hard, his eyes sparkling. Piccolo dipped his head and spread his tongue wide as he licked the juice from Dende’s chin, and then, emboldened by Dende, slid his tongue inside Dende’s mouth, twining it with Dende’s blissfully eager tongue. Dende’s arms snaked around behind Piccolo’s neck as they deepened the kiss. Piccolo panicked as he started to get hard, but then he felt Dende’s own arousal rising to meet his and he gave up pretending he didn’t want this with every cell in his body.

Dende gently pulled away and took Piccolo’s elbow again and said, “Time for the next step, the fun step, come with me!” Dende hurried them to a big tent set up in what passed for the center of the harvest. Piccolo noticed a lot of sparkly-eyed, sticky, purple-tinged Nameks were also holding hands. Piccolo deflated: the ajisa was the reason for the ardor he saw in Dende’s eyes. The reason Dende allowed Piccolo to kiss him.

Dende pulled Piccolo into the tent. It was filled with narrow stalls with hoses and soap and stools. About half were filled with pairs of Nameks scrubbing each other down, stripping to just their shorts, though Piccolo noticed a few had dispensed with the shorts too. The color choice of the uniform made sense now, everyone was splattered with violet juice and Piccolo suspected that there was a lot more mess to come.

Dende tugged him into an empty stall and Piccolo sat on the tiny stool warily. “I’m going to break this little thing,” he said, not daring to put any weight on it.

“You could always float while you wash up. Just make sure your feet and legs are very clean. Though it’s better if everything is very clean,” Dende said and let his vest slide off onto the floor. His eyes never left Piccolo’s. Piccolo did the same, cramped in the tiny stall with his massive shoulders. The stall dividers were so short that if he were to stand, he would be able to see into the other stalls. They were all open on one side, so no one seemed to care much about modesty, but Piccolo still felt creepy looking down over other bathing Nameks.

Piccolo struggled and Dende leaned over, his hand skimming down Piccolo’s arm as he pushed the vest off. Piccolo wondered if Dende would shuck his shorts too. Instead, Dende started soaping Piccolo’s hands and working both his petite hands up Piccolo’s arms.

Piccolo’s heart thundered. Was this just the way the festival was? Should he be reciprocating? Was this one of the pleasant surprises? Dende bent over him more, running soap-slick hands over his shoulders and down the long, heavy ropes of muscle that ran along Piccolo’s spine, only stopping at the red velvety ridge that separated his rougher, ribbed torso skin from the smooth skin of his ass.

Dende breathed in his ear, “Relax, Piccolo, for once in your life.”

“Yeah…remember how…how I’m not good at that?” Piccolo said, his voice almost cracking. He used his long arms to get some soap and he started sudsing Dende’s lower back and hips, worked around to the front, up his abs, and onto his pecs. When Piccolo’s fingertips brushed over Dende’s nipples, Piccolo heard his sharp intake of breath. Piccolo’s hands continued their cleansing journey into Dende’s armpits, but his hands were big enough that his thumbs could keep rubbing Dende’s nipples until they were hard little pebbles. Only then did he move on to Dende’s back, caressing up and down. 

Dende’s whole torso was covered in soap, so Piccolo did his arms, shifting Dende so he sat astride one of Piccolo’s knees. Dende’s free arm soaped Piccolo’s other arm and onto his chest, giving each nipple a completely unsubtle tug. Piccolo gasped and his eyes flicked up to meet Dende’s, but Dende’s hungry gaze was on Piccolo’s unfortunately obvious erection.

Piccolo was torn. He didn’t want Dende to fuck Piccolo to spite Ulitka only to have another sexual regret eating at him. Piccolo would love to fuck Dende, but not if it made his friend feel worse, because Piccolo knew it would break his own heart when Dende moved on, even more so if he increased Dende’s unhappiness.

Piccolo slicked soapy hands down Dende’s leg, massaging his foot, and sliding his fingers between Dende’s toes. Dende seemed taken aback by this turn. Piccolo said, “You said the feet were important, right?”

“Oh? Yes! Oh, right. Of course,” Dende said. To Piccolo’s dismay, Dende moved off his knee and onto the other little stool. Dende took Piccolo’s left foot in his hands and scrubbed it everywhere before working up Piccolo’s leg. When he reached the hem of Piccolo’s shorts, he ignored them, sliding his hands up under the fabric as far as he could reach. He gripped the big, hard muscles of Piccolo’s thigh and rubbed them aggressively. He worked high enough that Piccolo’s breathing sped up, but then the smaller man massaged his way back down Piccolo’s leg and did it on the other side.

Piccolo meanwhile caressed his way down Dende’s leg and stretched it out straight, rested it on his own thigh. Piccolo sudsed his way up the wiry length of Dende’s lithe legs. Piccolo rued his large hands as he couldn’t make it nearly as far up under Dende’s shorts, but it was gratifying to hear Dende’s breathing become more ragged, to see the bulge in his shorts swell.

Dende turned on the little spigot and stood to rinse Piccolo, his hands racing over Piccolo’s skin. Piccolo kept his eyes closed and allowed himself to relax a tiny bit and just enjoy the feeling of the pleasantly warm water sluicing over his bare skin followed by Dende’s hot, sensual touch. Dende moved closer and bent over him again as he rinsed down Piccolo’s back. Piccolo dared more forwardness as he gently bit Dende’s flank, nothing too rough, but enough to give Dende ideas. Enough to taste the smaller man’s skin as Piccolo flicked out his tongue quickly before pulling away.

Dende gasped and said, “There, see, you can relax a little. You do know how.”

“It’s easier with you,” Piccolo said, emboldened by the way Dende kept touching him, even though Piccolo was sure all the soap was gone.

Piccolo took the nozzle from Dende and pulled him back down onto Piccolo’s knee. He ran his hand over Dende’s skin, scrubbing away the suds. Dende’s eyes were closed, but his mouth opened a little whenever Piccolo’s hands found a good spot. Piccolo liked watching Dende like this. He imagined blindfolding him, touching him everywhere, letting Dende experience more tactile pleasure when deprived of his sight.

Piccolo wrapped his arm around Dende’s waist and floated them up off the ground to rinse their feet a final time before he turned off the spigot. He smirked at Dende. “What now?”

Dende’s eyes were dazed, his pupils blown, and he leaned in like he might kiss Piccolo, but stopped. Piccolo willed his face not to pout. “Ah, right…well…um…let’s fly back to our tank so we don’t get our feet dirty.”

Piccolo released the smaller man, but as they flew, Dende slid his fingers between Piccolo’s yet again. There was no misunderstanding Dende’s signals now, Piccolo knew he would do whatever Dende wanted, but Piccolo could already feel his heart turning to jagged, shattered shards.

Dende guided them right into the tub. Piccolo laughed and said, “Oh, so it’s a whole Bacchanalia thing?”

“What is that?” Dende asked, cocking his head to the side, his hand still in Piccolo’s. He pulled Piccolo closer as they squished unsteadily into the fruit. The sensation was bizarre, and Piccolo almost pointed out that it felt like stepping on viscera, but decided that such comparisons were ill-advised with non-warriors.

“A long time ago on Earth, this group of people called the Romans had a festival to celebrate wine and pleasure and sometimes violence too, but it all honored a god Bacchus. It’s maybe all a myth and not much is known, but the art I’ve seen has people stomping grapes into juice to be turned into wine. So I assume that is sort of what we’re doing here?” Piccolo asked, taking an experimental, squelching step.

Dende grinned so broadly that his fangs showed on both sides and he steadied himself by grabbing Piccolo’s forearms. The vats were only about four feet tall, but Dende was petite enough that if he fell, it would be challenging to stand up again. Piccolo used the opportunity to pull Dende closer to him.

Dende giggled and said, “Well, something like that. Ajisa is different than grapes though. Different than most things on Earth, actually. You’ll see. We’ll have a lovely time.”

“I’m already having a great time, Dende,” Piccolo said.

Dende looked up and wobbled in the increasingly slippery layer of juice and pulp that accumulated as they moved around. Another pair of Nameks were about to settle in their tub when Piccolo cast his most demonic, hateful glare at them. They floated casually to the next tub.

Dende took a big, sloppy step and managed to squirt juice in a thick line up Piccolo’s abs, which in addition to being very evocative for Piccolo, made him start laughing. Dende laughed too and said, “Did you just scare them away, Piccolo?”

“What? No! I have no idea what you’re talking about. They just knew someone as big as me wouldn’t need any help squishing up all this fruit,” Piccolo said, and against all the warnings in his heart, grabbed Dende under the armpits and jumped backwards, flopping on his back in the middle of all the ajisa.

Dende collapsed giggling on top of Piccolo who was slowly sinking down in the fruit, getting completely covered. Dende rolled off of him, but tugged at him to keep their bodies close as they sank together. Dende managed to laugh out, “Oh, Piccolo, if this doesn’t make you relax, I don’t know what will.”

Piccolo guffawed, because he knew one thing that would _definitely_ make him relax, but he wasn’t going to say that out loud. Dende rolled over, splattering and squirting Piccolo’s chest and face with more juice as he put his elbows on Piccolo’s chest. He looked down at Piccolo, grinning broadly and said, “What are you laughing at? Hmm?”

“Nothing, I swear. Nothing. Maybe I just start laughing when I relax.”

Dende ran his hand down Piccolo’s arm and squeezed along the way. “You don’t feel even a tiny bit relaxed,” Dende said, his eyelids falling heavy as his hand slipped onto Piccolo’s hip and started moving up his flank.

“Yeah? You think so? Maybe I’m just always rock hard, and it has nothing to do with being relaxed,” Piccolo said. Piccolo wished he had taken a few seconds to consider his phrasing. His cheeks flamed and he hoped the purple ajisa juice would cover his embarrassment.

Dende slithered farther onto Piccolo’s body as the fruit started to engulf them. He wiggled his thigh between Piccolo’s leg and rolled his hips against Piccolo. It was subtle, experimental, but he gasped. His eyes slid shut for just a moment before they met Piccolo’s. They were fiery and glittering as he said, “It would seem you are indeed rock hard.”


	4. In the Vat

Piccolo’s heart froze in his chest at Dende’s words. At Dende’s acknowledgment of how Dende was responding to the ajisa and how Piccolo was responding to Dende. The resolve Piccolo had had not to give in to temptation and allow Dende to use him as a sexual rebound disappeared in the sticky, purple mess. Dende could rebound off Piccolo as much as he wanted.

Piccolo flexed his abs to pull himself semi-upright as he slid a juice slick hand over Dende’s pec and onto his neck, caressing the lithe length of it. He cupped Dende’s jaw while Dende stared with open hunger at Piccolo’s mouth. Piccolo sucked Dende’s lower lip first, nibbled it, and canted his head to the side enough that he could get closer before sliding his tongue into Dende’s ajisa-sweet mouth.

Dende’s hips rocked on Piccolo’s thigh. His arms wrapped around Piccolo’s shoulders from underneath, clutching at him almost desperately as they deepened the kiss. Piccolo reclined back into the squelching mess of fruit, surprised how much he enjoyed the sensation of the ajisa bursting underneath them every time they shifted.

Any sense of propriety or shyness Dende felt was gone now that they were openly kissing, not just “tasting” the juice on each other. He ground their hips together where he straddled Piccolo’s thigh, squeezing it tightly between his own wiry legs. Dende kissed furiously, frantically, and now that Piccolo laid back, Dende’s hands roved, smearing the purple over his skin.

Dende panted and Piccolo’s own arousal rose with every harsh breath across his wet skin. Dende pulled out of the kiss and sucked over Piccolo’s jaw to his ear, nipping the lobe, then delving inside it. He gasped, “Gods, Piccolo…”

Piccolo didn’t dare speak or he would say something stupid and ruin everything. He ached for this. He wanted it so badly. He moved his big hands down Dende’s petite torso, loving the way he could grip both sides of Dende and still his fingers touched in the middle across his slender waist. Piccolo took a breath for courage and took each of Dende’s muscled ass cheeks in his hands.

Dende moaned and suckeddown Piccolo’s neck to his nipple. His razor sharp fangs grazed the tip, back and forth until Piccolo both knew he was bleeding, and that he never wanted Dende to stop it felt so good.

Emboldened by Dende’s mouth and response to Piccolo’s groping, Piccolo slid his hands under Dende’s shorts to really touch his ass. He paused for a breath to see if Dende would reprimand him or pull his hands out.

Dende’s response made Piccolo groan. He reached down and shoved at his own shorts, pushing them down and squiggling free of them so he was naked. He returned to grinding on Piccolo’s knee, but he tugged at Piccolo’s shorts. Piccolo’s face split into the biggest, stupidest smile and he helped Dende undress him.

Writhing naked, slicked with sweet, purple juice, and both hard as marble, was better than any fantasy Piccolo had ever conjured. Dende’s hands were hungry for him as they glided over his skin. Dende’s mouth too, sucking and biting and licking Piccolo. And all of it felt amazing. Not just good sex amazing, but euphoric, ecstatic, rapturous. Sublime. Understanding dawned on Piccolo as he picked up pairs of chi all around them, spiking and fluctuating wildly. They were in a vat of some kind of aphrodisiac drug. No wonder Dende suddenly wanted him.

Piccolo tried to examine whether he cared what Dende’s motivations were, but the world had taken on a slippery,surreal quality. Piccolo said, his voice throaty, “Dende, fuck, what…what’s happening?”

Dende shifted enough that their cocks could rub blissfully together and his delicate hand held Piccolo’s prick against his, the ajisa juice making the frotting divine. Piccolo felt like he could fuck Dende all day long and it would just get better and better until they dissolved into the ajisa as particles of pure pleasure.

Dende purred, “Please relax, Piccolo, for me. Please?”

“Yeah…I…but…”

“Let the ajisa take you,” Dende murmured as he licked up Piccolo’s throat and onto his mouth again. Dende’s tongue moved in Piccolo’s mouth almost like they were fucking, like it was Dende’s cock and Piccolo’s mouth was his _theadur_. Piccolo moaned and sucked Dende’s delicious tongue, used his own to swirl around it.

Dende held their cocks together with both hands now. He fucked into the tight pocket he’d formed with Piccolo’s cock as the lining. Piccolo reluctantly pulled back from the kiss and said, “Should…shouldn’t we not come in the ajisa?”

Dende smiled down at him, his eyelids heavy, and he said, “Are you going to come for me, Piccolo?”

“If you keep doing what you’re doing, yeah,” Piccolo said and laughed, unable to stop himself from bucking his hips up toward Dende’s prick.

“I want it, Piccolo, but I can keep it from getting in the ajisa…” Dende purred and slithered down Piccolo’s body.

“No, not like that,” Piccolo said and Dende’s trance broke as a frown drew down his features. Piccolo lifted Dende and spun him, thankful that so much of Piccolo's height was in his legs. “Like this.”

Piccolo took Dende’s cock in his mouth and Dende groaned, “Oh, Piccolo, oh gods…”

After a long moan, Dende sucked Piccolo down, gripping his head with the muscles of his throat. He pulsed the muscles on Piccolo’s cock and Piccolo’s hips jerked up helplessly toward the sensation. He tried to control himself so he didn’t choke Dende.

Dende used his hand to manage the rest of Piccolo’s length. Piccolo wanted to savor the feel of Dende’s mouth on him, but the sensation was more intense than any blow job he’d ever had in his life. Each brush of Dende’s tongue along his slit felt like they were turning into one body of pure pleasure. Piccolo emulated Dende’s movements until they were sucking each other in tandem.

Dende’s expert mouth drove Piccolo wild, but he also felt a deep connection to Dende. Piccolo couldn’t tell if it was a result of the ajisa, or just his love for Dende finally being gratified, maybe the two combined, but it was so fulfilling. Piccolo’s whole body thrummed with pleasure. His whole soul.

Dende gaspingly pulled off and whispered, “Come in my mouth, Piccolo, I’m…I’m…oh, gods!” Dende’s mouth engulfed Piccolo again. Piccolo lost control, his orgasm burning through him like a wildfire in high winds. He groaned around Dende’s cock as Dende filled his mouth.

They surged together another long moment. Piccolo sucked the last bit out of Dende’s slit, making him shiver, and he did the same for Piccolo. He turned and laid back beside Piccolo in the battered ajisa, catching his breath. He twined his fingers with Piccolo’s. 

Piccolo didn’t mind the silence for once. He could hear all the moaning and murmuring of other Nameks delighting in the ajisa together. He said, “Is this…is this part of the festival?”

“Oh, for some, yes, but others just enjoy the harvest and the processing and the _ranuelett,_ the drink that we make from the fruit.”

“I…I think I’m a little high.”

Dende giggled and said, “Well you are very big, so I suppose being a _little_ high is a possibility.”

Piccolo rolled his head to look in Dende’s eyes. His pupils were wide and intense. “Oh, you mean you’re a _lot_ high?”

“I am!” Dende cried cheerfully and pulled Piccolo to kiss him. He kissed and kissed, his tongue hungry and twining with Piccolo’s, dancing along his fangs, and tasting Piccolo, until he squelched his way through the fruit onto Piccolo again.

Piccolo, without thinking what it meant, lifted Dende by his hips onto Piccolo’s face, and licked along Dende’s tightly closed, ajisa-coated slit entrance to his _theadur_. The back of Piccolo’s mind screamed and ranted about how sacred the _theadur_ was amongst Nameks, and Piccolo knew. Piccolo just wanted it so badly, just this. He wouldn’t fuck Dende’s _theadur_ , he only wanted a taste. He wanted to make Dende come this way. Then he wanted to fuck Dende’s tight little ass until Dende was screaming Piccolo’s name to the sky.

Dende bent his knees and sank down onto Piccolo’s kiss. His claws trailed over Piccolo’s skull before clutching Piccolo’s hands where they gripped Dende’s thighs. “P…Piccolo!” he stuttered.

Piccolo whispered, “Do you want me to stop?”

“No, gods, no, never…” Dende moaned.

Piccolo plunged his face back into his petite lover’s crotch, using one hand to push his balls out of the way so he could lick him more easily. He probed with his tongue, adding more pressure with each pass up and down the scar-like entrance. Piccolo wondered if Dende ever touched himself here, or if he was too proper. Piccolo murmured against Dende’s skin, “Do you ever touch yourself here? Do you finger yourself?”

Dende looked down with wide, sparkling eyes, and breathed, “Do…I…will you judge me if I say yes?”

Piccolo shook his head, holding Dende’s gaze, and he drove his tongue hard against the slit, not hard enough to breach the opening, but enough that Dende let out a long, low cry. “I only wanted to imagine you doing it. I bet it’s so fucking hot when you touch yourself here. I would love to watch you,” Piccolo growled.

Dende’s eyes got wider still and he said, “You…you would?”

Piccolo nodded, his tongue going back to work until Dende was humping his face, pleading and mewling with pleasure. Piccolo said, “Can I dip inside you? Can I make you come?”

Dende panted, “Yes, oh gods, yes, Piccolo, I want you inside me…”

Piccolo thrust his tongue inside Dende, tasted the sweet, soft velvet lining of his sheath, and moaned. His tongued curled inside Dende, touring until Dende’s cries got more frantic. Piccolo wanted to know every millimeter of Dende that turned him on. Piccolo thought maybe if he brought Dende enough pleasure, they could do this again, no drugs necessary.

Piccolo pressed his face more firmly against Dende’s crotch so he could tongue him deeper. He was rewarded with Dende’s shivering, twitching cries. “Piccolo, oh gods…your tongue…Piccolo!” Dende groaned and Piccolo’s tongue was seized in the powerful, pulsing grip of Dende’s sheath’s orgasm.

Dende slammed down on Piccolo and Piccolo, at the last moment, cupped the end of Dende’s cock in his hand, semen pouring out of Dende as the orgasm rippled up into his balls. “Fuck, Dende, come for me, baby, come so hard,” Piccolo purred and swirled his tongue in Dende’s sheath for the final few spasms of Dende’s orgasm.

Dende eased off Piccolo’s face. Piccolo touched his lips, missing the taste of Dende's _theadur_ already. Piccolo licked the cum off his fingers. 

“Oh gods, Piccolo, that…that was incredible. I had no idea you’d be so…naughty,” Dende said with a little smirk and bent to kiss Piccolo.

“Did you think I was a virgin or something? You seemed surprised earlier that I even knew what sex was,” Piccolo said, the ajisa making him more liberal with his tongue in both senses of the word.

He straddled Piccolo’s hips and laid on his chest for a moment. He trailed his claws along the ridges of Piccolo’s arm muscles. Dende murmured, “Mmm…Well, I just thought you weren’t…interested…in sex.”

“Why?” Piccolo said, affronted. Did he seem like a prude? Piccolo always had an easy time picking people up, and they left his bed satisfied.

“Because you’re so serious and focused all the time. I assumed you would view it as a frivolous distraction.”

Piccolo laughed and wrapped his arms around Dende. “Wow. Huh. Interesting.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, Piccolo.”

“No, I’m not hurt. Just…it’s interesting.”

“Why?” Dende said, propping himself up.

“Never mind that. Aren’t we supposed to be harvesting fruit and squashing it into wine?”

Dende kissed Piccolo with his eyes open. “Why are you resisting my attempts to get to know you better?”

Piccolo’s eyes widened and his cheeks heated. He countered, “Why are you trying to get to know me better after ignoring me for a very long time?”

“Perhaps because you just went down on me rather more intimately than I expected?” Dende said, undeterred by Piccolo’s semi-hostile tone.

“I just…” Piccolo started and sighed. He thought about what he wanted to say, but his mind was fuzzy and soft. He didn’t want to have Dende know him and reject him. It was easier if this was just what it was: meaningless, drug-fueled sex. “Let’s just have a good time, Dende.”

Dende searched Piccolo’s eyes with a furrowed brow. He slid his hands out on Piccolo’s pecs, using his thumb and forefinger to pinch Piccolo’s nipples until Piccolo was squirming beneath him and the fruit had almost completely engulfed him.

“You are an enigma, Piccolo. Is there anyone in the whole world who knows your heart?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Piccolo said, his hands gripping Dende’s thighs as they too succumbed to the ajisa’s slow ooze. 

The ajisa was started to fill in around Piccolo’s ears. Dende bent and with his mouth almost on Piccolo’s, he whispered, “Why is that? What secrets do you keep in that dungeon, Piccolo? Why do you hide yourself away?”

Piccolo’s eyes slid closed in preparation for the kiss he hungered for, but Dende turned Piccolo’s want to his advantage and his antennae coiled around Piccolo’s. It was shockingly intimate, as though every bit of Piccolo’s soul that had been carefully packed away in a locked trunk for years on end had suddenly been scattered out into bright sunlight. Piccolo's impulse was to yank his head away.

“Dende,” Piccolo choked out. Dende’s breathing heaved against Piccolo's chest and Piccolo gently pushed him away. Piccolo slithered out from underneath Dende. Having only been initiated to _peluwsaterna_ earlier that day, Piccolo felt shaky and empty, like he’d just thrown up everything he’d eaten in his life. 

Piccolo wiped the ajisa off his face, wading away from Dende in the vat. He put a trembling hand on the edge of the vat to vault out to go rinse off.


	5. The Unexpected

Dende seized his wrist, but Piccolo couldn’t bring himself to turn around. Horror crept up his throat, tears burning in his eyes. The _peluwsaterna_ was so unexpected that Piccolo didn’t even know how much Dende had seen. The stupid ajisa was making every part of Piccolo sloppy. 

Dende yanked him back around with surprising force, tugged him down, and his mouth crashed against Piccolo’s, fierce and unforgiving. Piccolo’s lips bled against the assault of Dende’s fangs. Both Dende’s hands slid up the sides of Piccolo’s neck, cupping his jaw, and floating up to deepen the kiss. Piccolo leaned against the edge of the tub, but it was too precarious at his height. He would pitch backwards over the edge if Dende continued pushing on him.

Piccolo tried to halt the kiss and escape again, but Dende maneuvered Piccolo’s body back into the ajisa, swiftly hooking his leg around the back of Piccolo’s knees, so he toppled backwards. Dende straddled Piccolo, kissing him relentlessly. Piccolo’s body responded to Dende’s aggressive lust, even if Piccolo’s mind howled for self-preservation. But where would Piccolo go? He was trapped on New Namek if he didn’t stay with Dende.

“You are not trapped, Piccolo. If you truly wish to leave, I can take you back to Earth whenever you desire,” Dende murmured and went back to kissing, “But I hope that you don’t want that.”

“Dende,” Piccolo said as Dende nipped down his neck, breaking skin even, and growling as he reached Piccolo’s nipple again.

“Hmm?” Dende hummed, sucking on Piccolo’s nipple with the same zeal he’d been kissing Piccolo. Piccolo tried to slip out of Dende’s grasp again, but Dende’s fingers bit into his sides. “Use your words, Piccolo,” he said against Piccolo’s skin as he kissed over Piccolo’s pecs.

“I…I want to go home.”

“Because I saw that you’re a softer creature than you let on? Don’t be ridiculous, Piccolo. You said you wanted to have a good time, let’s have a good time.”

“But I’m not anymore,” Piccolo said, his throat tight.

Dende met his gaze with dilated pupils. He narrowed them and sat up, still astride Piccolo’s hips. “You could if you weren’t so recalcitrant.”

“I’m not recalcitrant! You shouldn’t have done that!” Piccolo snarled.

“I didn’t know it would upset you! Nameks do that all the time, particularly after physical intimacy. It’s the equivalent of kissing.”

“Not for me! I…I wasn’t expecting it!”

“Very well, I will warn you next time, but for future reference when you sleep with other Nameks, it’s rather tame and expected. Good lord, Piccolo, try to loosen up. I’ve gotten you off and gotten you high, what more can I do to get you to relax and be at ease with me?”

“I’m not going to sleep with other Nameks! And you might be high, but I’m not!”

“Then eat more ajisa, for the sake of all gods, and have a good time. Let yourself enjoy something for once in your entire life, please!” Dende said in a pleading tone that confused Piccolo.

Piccolo didn’t know how to respond. He turned away and said, “Why did you want me to come with you? Was it to spite Ulitka? Because he’s not here. So I don’t know why you’re doing this.” Piccolo picked up a relatively unmarred ajisa and started munching on it. Maybe getting higher would make him feel less like he’d been turned inside out. He slurped a second down.

“You’re obtuse, Piccolo. That is not even remotely why I brought you. I hoped to avoid him entirely. That was…humiliating.”

“Then why? Why _do_ you drag me along, Dende? You obviously don’t enjoy my company or you wouldn’t sprint off to find other company the minute we land here. You never seek me out on Earth to spend time together. Do you bring me as some fucked up show-and-tell? Just to show that the great Nail-consumer bends to your will? That he follows you around like a lost puppy, taking whatever scraps of fucking attention you’ll give him, just hoping finally, finally you might see him and take him into your heart? Huh? Is that it? Because otherwise, I have no fucking clue what your motivations are!”

Dende’s eyes widened and darted back and forth between Piccolo’s. Piccolo’s eyes were stinging and they were likely red from trying to contain his misery. Piccolo looked away, crossed his arms, and used his magic to make his shorts reclothe him. He took a few deep breaths to keep his tears from bursting out in sob form.

“Piccolo, of course I enjoy spending time with you. I…I wouldn’t have run off with others if I had an inkling that you wished to spend time with me—“

“I skulk around the Lookout all the time, Dende. You don’t get to accuse me of being obtuse and not examine your own behavior.”

“You sit up there and meditate! How was I to infer that it had anything to do with me? I thought you just liked the quiet.”

“Bullshit, I always try to talk to you and you always brush me off. You still haven’t answered me. Why?”

“Because…because you intrigue me, Piccolo. I’ve never gotten even a glimpse into your mind. Your eyes reveal nothing and your mental fortress is impenetrable. I…I thought perhaps you were so closed off from a lack of community on Earth, so I started bringing you with me when I came here. You agreed so readily, that I thought I’d figured it out. But then you were so openly hostile with everyone—“

“They hate me!”

“We’ve been over this. I wanted you to come today so that…Well…I…”

“Just admit if it was to spite Ulitka. If this, what we just did, was to spite Ulitka, I’d rather know the truth that keep…keep…keep stupidly, pointlessly hoping!” Piccolo wished he hadn’t eaten the second ajisa, the world was getting more vivid with every passing second, while time seemed to drag to a stop. “Fuck, I think I’m high now. Whoa…weird.”

Dende giggled and said, “I brought you for this. It’s unfair, perhaps, but I hoped you might reveal yourself, at least a little, if I got you high. So yes, this…this was my intention, but not the…the other. That was quite unexpected. When you confessed that you only came with me to spend time with me…I…I hoped maybe…you would let me…” Dende lowered himself back onto Piccolo’s chest. He kissed Piccolo gently.

Piccolo tried to resist the supple pull of Dende’s lips, the (literally) intoxicating taste of his tongue coated in the sweet ajisa juice, but he couldn’t. Piccolo had wanted Dende too long. Piccolo relented and kissed back. Brushed his tongue along Dende’s and delved into his mouth, let Dende plunder his own.

Piccolo’s mind unfurled as the ajisa coursed through his veins. The color of Dende’s skin grew more incandescent, his taste more enticing. Piccolo caressed Dende’s cheek and even though it was sticky, it was also smooth. Flawless underneath the purple paint of the ajisa. Piccolo pulled out of the kiss and stared into Dende’s eyes. Piccolo’s mind released like a horribly tight muscle knot and everything around him felt surreal, like he’d stepped into a wonderful dream. Dende’s mouth slid over his skin. Piccolo groaned it felt so good and his body arched to meet the wet heat of Dende’s tongue.

Piccolo pulled Dende up to kiss him more, looking into his eyes. He couldn’t remember why he was upset. He brushed his antennae over Dende’s, a delicate touch, a safe touch that revealed nothing more than Piccolo’s desire. Dende’s eyes slid closed with a little shiver. Piccolo’s hips rolled up against Dende. Piccolo’s antennae stroked along Dende’s, just enough to arouse Dende without opening Piccolo’s psyche up again, until Dende ground against Piccolo, panting in between kisses.

Piccolo murmured, “I want you so badly, Dende,” and a distant, sober voice in his mind screeched in horror at the admission.

“Then have me,” Dende breathed against Piccolo’s ear. He ripped Piccolo’s shorts off and seized his cock. He stroked it with ajisa juice and shifted until Piccolo’s head pressed hard against his pucker. Dende’s ass relaxed for Piccolo as he slid down Piccolo’s juice-slick shaft, groaning low in his throat, the claws of his other hand cutting into Piccolo’s pec.

Piccolo gasped at the tight heat gripping him. Dende eased up and then back down, over and over until Piccolo was seated completely inside him. “Piccolo…” Dende purred as his eyes opened and met Piccolo’s.

Piccolo’s whole pelvis throbbed with a new, ajisa-enhanced pleasure. Dende’s ass fit Piccolo perfectly. Piccolo gripped Dende’s hips and stared into Dende. “Okay if I move?”

“Yes, gods yes,” Dende groaned and bent to kiss Piccolo. “Please let me in, please, let me know you,” Dende pleaded and his antennae brushed Piccolo’s again. 

Everything felt distant to Piccolo, like he was watching himself, not _being_ himself. He said, “What if you hate me?”

“I won’t hate you, Piccolo. But I can’t love you either, if you don’t let me know you,” Dende whispered, sucking more juice off Piccolo’s jawline and his neck. “Isn’t that what you want? Don’t you want me to love you?”

Piccolo gasped as he thrust up into Dende, reaching deeper into his core. His hips moved on their own, like he and Dende’s hips were dancing and it was perfect. Every sensation felt new and different. Sex had never felt like this before and Piccolo panted. Dende left his antennae alone, but Piccolo whispered, “You’ll never love me.”

“I can’t love someone I don’t know, Piccolo,” Dende rasped and slammed down on Piccolo, taking him deeper and harder and faster.

They sank down into the ajisa until they were upright to keep their heads above the pulpy, purple mess, and it squelched around them. It was an entirely new sensation, the sun-warmed semi-liquid filled all the spaces between and around them. Piccolo felt more ajisa entering his blood as he kissed over Dende’s shoulders. More still through the scratches that Dende left in his skin. Piccolo was high as kite, higher than he’d ever been, and it was unlike anything on Earth, somewhere between a hallucinogen and a narcotic. Euphoria surged through him, enhanced by the ecstasy of Dende’s tight ass sliding fast and rough up and down his shaft.

“Let me in, Piccolo. It’s…it’s more amazing if we’re together at the end, together when we come, please. Gods, please, I’m so close, please let me in. Please give yourself to me!” Dende groaned.

Piccolo couldn’t resist Dende’s pleas. He lowered his head and tears filled his eyes, more from intensity than anything. But with fear too. Their antennae twined together and Piccolo moaned at the heat of it. The orgasm that rose in him was intense and full feeling, broader and slower than any climax he’d experienced before. It crept through him, heavy and hot and heady. Dende’s similarly tidal release surged into Piccolo’s mind, overlapping their pleasure like two beautiful colors mixing together to make something even more gorgeous.

“I love you, Dende. I know you don’t love me back, but I love you. I’ve loved you for so long,” Piccolo gasped against Dende’s lips, letting Dende’s mind envelop his. He swung open the dungeon doors, revealed himself to Dende in an act more intimate than any fucking could ever be for Piccolo. 

Dende panted, “Piccolo, oh gods, Piccolo, yes! Yes! Yes!” Dende screamed his name again and again, but kept their antennae wrapped so tightly together that Piccolo couldn’t escape the intensity of the new thing Dende did to him.

Piccolo wailed and their antennae’s climax wracked his body as one thing, like they were one body. Dende shook on him, pounding down on Piccolo as he pistoned up into Dende, clutching his hips to enhance the bliss of feeling like one perfect, throbbing body of pleasure.

Piccolo’s mind sloshed into Dende’s as Dende’s lapped back into his. Piccolo didn’t know how he’d lived without this connection before. Somewhere in the sober recesses of Piccolo’s mind, he thought maybe he was doing it wrong, but he needed what he was taking from Dende. And it was reciprocal, Dende took and took from Piccolo, feeding on the unfettered love he found in Piccolo’s mind.

It was a long time like that, floating in the soft, blissful cloud of their ecstasy, before Piccolo thought to move. What really brought him out of it was the sensation of sinking deeper into something with his body. He opened his eyes and Dende did too. Their eyes met and Piccolo pulled away from the kiss that he didn’t even register as a separate thing from what was happening in their minds.

His mouth filled with ajisa. They were submerged. He swallowed the mouthful. Dende did too and they both grinned as Piccolo stood up, Dende still on his prick, which was still hard somehow, despite the biggest, longest orgasm of Piccolo’s entire life. They kissed and their antennae stroked over each other in a pleasant, smooth way.

Piccolo felt like someone threw a grenade into their bliss when he heard a snort of laughter. He and Dende pulled apart gently, blinking at one another and smiling. Piccolo must have imagined the awful sound. Dende leaned back toward Piccolo, canting his head for a deep kiss, when a voice Piccolo didn’t want to hear said, “See, I told you this would happen if you didn’t speak with him.”

Ulitka floated in the air above the vat, still prim and pristine in his purple-blue uniform, Moori at his side. Moori’s teeth ground and he said, “Dende! What in the name of all that’s sacred are you doing? This is disgraceful! Clean yourself up and return home. It’s time you and I had a chat!”

Dende shrank in Piccolo’s arms, pulling away inside himself. Moori flew off with a disgusted scoff. Ulitka continued to loom over them. Once Moori was farther away, Ulitka sneered and said, “And to think, you cried like a little bitch when I fucked you. Cried more when I called you a slut. But I was right, wasn’t I? And it seems you were just putting on the tears for show—“

Without thought, Piccolo sent a chi blast into Ulitka’s chest. No one was going to speak to Dende that way while Piccolo had air in his lungs. It was a weak blast, not a kill shot, and when Ulitka gasped in pain and clutched at his sternum, he tried to retaliate with a much more significant blast. Piccolo batted it away and held Dende tight against his body.

Piccolo was high, but not too high to defend the man he loved from any form of abuse. “You better fuck right off, Ulitka, or the next one won’t be a warning,” Piccolo growled, “And if you ever say _anything_ like that again, I will find you and feed you your own fucking intestines.”

Ulitka laughed and said, “Is that why he keeps you? Are you his guard dog? It’s too bad Nail can’t escape you and put you in your place. You’re a coward, Dende.” Ulitka fled, after projecting his cowardice onto to poor, trembling Dende.


	6. A Proper Send-Off

Piccolo kissed all over Dende’s face and held him tight. “Hey, Dende? Are you okay? Gods, I’m so sorry.”

Dende buried his face in Piccolo’s chest and shook. Piccolo was still catastrophically high and he assumed Dende was too. He held his tongue and waited to see what Dende would say. Piccolo rubbed Dende’s lithe back and kissed the top of his head.

Piccolo’s sense of time was completely nonsensical because of the ajisa. Some breaths felt like they lasted minutes, others were so fast he couldn’t keep count. He felt certain they were both breathing at a fairly normal rate, but by the time Dende spoke again, Piccolo felt like they were well-marinated in ajisa.

Dende’s voice was barely more than breathing as he said, “Do you think I’m a slut? For this? Or for…for sleeping with him?”

“No! Fuck, of course not! I can’t imagine _not_ fucking someone before becoming _atheanna_. That’s insane. Not having sex when you want to have sex is insane, actually.”

Dende pushed off of Piccolo and scrubbed his hands over his face. Piccolo took them, held them, and squashed them back down in the ajisa. He stared into Dende’s blown pupils and said, “Don't let Ulitka ruin today for you. He’s just a jealous fucking idiot.”

“I have to go. I’ll take you back to Earth before I go see my family,” Dende said, his voice flat as his eyes drifted away from Piccolo’s. “Let’s go clean up.”

“No.”

“What?” Dende said, turning back to Piccolo.

“Moori has no right to chastise you! You’re an adult. You’re a fucking god! Your personal life is none of his—“

“He wants me to be with Ulitka. They’ve already selected a new Guardian for Earth so that I can be brought home to…” Dende shivered with a look of disgust, “to strengthen the warrior line, since I’m one of Nail’s closest kin who’s a mage. Ulitka is…their choice.”

Piccolo gaped. “What the _fuck_?! You can’t…you can’t just…just…pair-bond with that fucking asshole! He’ll hurt you, for one thing, he obviously _enjoys_ hurting you! But he’s also a complete douchebag! You _deserve_ better, Dende. You deserve someone who loves you and treats you well. You’re not a broodmare!”

“He’s just…It’s…” Dende held his face in his hands and burst into big, wracking sobs. “My family will cast me out if I defy them and their wishes about who I should pair-bond with. The fact that Moori caught me in Yapuural at all is enough to make them livid, but…” Dende cried more, unable to continue speaking.

“But fucking their big bad bogeyman is worse? Dende…I…I thought…” Piccolo didn’t know what he thought. Being high while coping with such rage at Dende’s family and spineless, abusive Ulitka. Now the let-down of realizing Dende _had_ just been using him for sex was devastating. Piccolo wished Dende would at least use him for sex a few times.

Dende’s eyes looked dead. He slumped deeper into the ajisa until only his nostrils were above the line of purple mush. Piccolo kissed the tip of his nose. Despite his own impending despair, Piccolo was still completely wasted. If Dende was going to throw away his life with that absolute twat, Piccolo wanted to give him a proper send-off.

Dende emerged out of the slop just enough to wipe his eyes and look at Piccolo. Piccolo reached out under the fruit and held Dende’s waist. He pulled Dende closer, unsure if it was at glacial speed, or only felt glacial. He kissed Dende tenderly. “Don’t. Please don’t leave Earth. Please? Who will help me relax?”

Dende finally giggled and gave in to the kiss. They kissed until Dende also gave in to Piccolo’s arms and sloshed through the mush to wrap his legs around Piccolo again. Piccolo smiled against his lips and said, “Are we supposed to do anything besides have amazing sex while covered in fruit? Or is that the whole point of the festival?”

“Oh, shit.”

“What?”

Dende’s huge eyes turned to Piccolo and he started snickering. It bloomed into a chuckle, then a guffaw. He finally choked out, “I came in the ajisa!”

Piccolo started to giggle too, and Piccolo generally did not _giggle_ , but Dende’s load floating around somewhere in the violet goo was just funny. Piccolo swung Dende up in his arms and kissed him more as he did another back flop to continue squishing the fruit. “I won’t tell if you won’t, and I don’t care if I get a little, or a lot, of your cum in my mouth,” Piccolo whispered conspiratorially.

Dende laughed more and bowed his head to kiss Piccolo. “You should relax more often, Piccolo.”

“Do we get to bring growlers of this shit home?”

“We do. And we can even purchase more growlers if you wish,” Dende said, his hands running over Piccolo’s chest.

“Wait…you have all those empty growlers: do you just get stoned as hell up at the Lookout?”

Dende grinned and kissed Piccolo, and purred, “Don’t tell Mr. Popo. Are you going to come up and lay in the purple clouds with me, Piccolo?” 

“I’d lay anywhere with you, Dende,” Piccolo murmured and gripped Dende’s cock. He pressed his lips to Dende’s urging Dende to open his mouth, to kiss Piccolo more deeply.

“What if they come back?” Dende whispered.

“We’ll hold our breath and fuck under the surface,” Piccolo said, and they both snickered. “Don’t let them ruin the festival for you. You finally got me to relax.”

“You’re still rock hard, though,” Dende said, wrapping his petite hand around Piccolo’s dick, stroking Piccolo as he bucked into Piccolo’s hand. Dende gasped, “Can I fuck you?”

“Gods, yes, please do,” Piccolo groaned, “As long as you don’t mind my cum in our ajisa juice.”

They both giggled more. Piccolo could feel even the slightest touch on his skin. Ajisa was amazing. Dende was amazing. They kissed more deeply, caressing each other with their free hands. Dende spread Piccolo’s legs and said, “Do you think we’re getting extra high from having it in our asses?”

“Having never been high on ajisa at all, it’s hard for me to know,” Piccolo said, grinning, “but I am so so so high right now.”

Dende’s hard-on pressed against Piccolo and he whispered, “Do you want me to warm you up? Or are you actually relaxed?”

“Just slow, easy, yeah?”

“Of course, my demon,” Dende said with a little giggle. Piccolo liked it though. He liked Dende having a pet name for Piccolo, even if was ironic.

“Squishiest demon ever. Don’t tell anyone,” Piccolo whispered to Dende as they kissed more. Dende began easing inside Piccolo. Dende’s cock had been a bit of a shock, given his diminutive size, Piccolo expected a proportional prick, but Dende was well-endowed. Piccolo panted trying to open up for Dende.

“Relax, Piccolo, I thought you were relaxed,” Dende murmured and stroked Piccolo’s dick more with the slippery fruit.

“Uh, I’m trying…I’ve never…I’ve never bottomed before.”

“Oh? How unusual. Who do you have sex with, anyway?”

“Guys I meet who are willing to go out with an enormous green dude,” Piccolo said laughing and added, “But I’ve fucked Goku, and Vegeta, and Raditz. I guess I hit most of the Saiyan population. Maybe Saiyans find me irresistible.”

“But Goku and Vegeta are both married!”

“Yeah…well…sometimes fighting just…turns.”

“Wasn’t Raditz the first Saiyan to come to Earth?” Dende asked, and nudged his head inside Piccolo, breathing, “Oh fuck, yes, Piccolo.”

Piccolo groaned and said, “Yeah, he ran into me while he was looking for Goku...I'd had a dry spell and he'd been in space for a long time… so we had a good time. Fuck, Dende, for such a little guy, there’s a lot of you.” Piccolo spread his legs wider and Dende eased in and out, plunging deeper each time and Piccolo finally let go and Dende thrust entirely into him. “Holy shit…holy shit…I see the appeal of getting fucked. Oh gods…Gods your cock feels so good inside me.”

Piccolo arched his back to take more of Dende inside himself. Dende’s prick was already pushing hard on his prostate and Piccolo gasped, “Oh, fuck, how…how does it feel this good? Dende…fuck…Dende…I want you to fuck me forever…Fuck…You are really good at this.” Dende stroked Piccolo’s prick in time with his rough, steady thrusts.

Dende’s eyelids fell halfway and he purred, with a little smirk, “I guess it pays to get fucked by a slut.”

“Don’t call yourself that, baby, don’t. I love you. You’re perfect.”

Dende’s smile turned sad. Dende panted, “Your ass feels incredible, my demon. Are you going to come for me? Are you going to clench on my prick?”

Piccolo tried to put his unrequited love out of his mind. “Fuck, if you keep talking like that I will,” Piccolo rasped, “Oh, shit, I probably shouldn’t come in the ajisa.”

“What’s a little more giz in a sea of fruit? I want you to come for me, just like this. I want to watch you, coated in ajisa, the way your cock is peeking out, I want to see your cum spill out of you,” Dende purred, bending to kiss Piccolo’s belly. Dende licked up to Piccolo’s nipple and bit it before sucking hard.

“Dende…oh gods, when you talk dirty…it’s…” Piccolo moaned as Dende shifted his angle and really started ramming into Piccolo’s p-spot. “Are you ready? Do you want it?”

“Come for me, my demon. Come for me!” Dende commanded, sitting back up and staring at Piccolo’s dick. 

Piccolo’s pleasure moved in the same slow, inexorable wave as the previous climax, and he saw now why Dende liked ajisa so well. The high itself was enjoyable, but the slowing of his orgasms like this, so he could savor them, was euphoria. His body bloomed, like it was filling with light and color. Dende lowered himself again and sucked even harder on Piccolo’s nipple, and his pleasure seemed to wash back over itself, to renew, and he somehow came again. Really came. He watched more cum splatter out from between Dende’s fingers.

Dende pulsed inside Piccolo, screaming his name, bucking into him hard and Piccolo reveled in the blissful stretching of his ass as it spasmed and tightened on Dende’s twitching cock. “Oh, fuck, Piccolo, you are so fucking tight!”

Dende rolled into Piccolo a final few times. He kissed all over Piccolo’s torso and hummed happily. He stayed inside Piccolo, and Piccolo was glad. He wasn’t ready to finish being fucked by Dende. He’d fantasized about Dende fucking him so many times, that he had a moment of certainty that he was just high and hallucinating, floating in a vat of ajisa coming all over himself while Dende looked on in horror. The sensation of it all being unreal gripped him so strongly that tears filled his eyes.

“My sweet demon, are you alright?” Dende murmured, “You look like you’re about to cry.”

“Is this…did we…is this real? Am I dreaming all of this?” Piccolo said in a small voice.

“Of course it’s _real_ , Piccolo,” Dende said and thrust into him again, “Surely you didn’t fantasize that my cock was this size, did you?”

“Well…I never really got into the details in my fantasies,” Piccolo said, but he tightened his abs and curled to meet Dende’s mouth with his own. “This was better than any fantasy I’ve ever had. If it's real. And I’m not just insanely high.”

Dende eased out of him, but slithered up his chest to kiss him more. “That was lovely. I wasn’t sure you’d be open to bottoming given how tense you can be. And how you like control.”

“Are you normally a top? You were good at that.”

“You really don’t care at all, do you?”

“That you fucked me? I care! I really liked it! How can you say I don’t care?” Piccolo said, wounded and feeling weepy again. The ajisa seemed to have that effect on him.

“Not that, goodness. Sweet Piccolo, you are just a big softie, aren’t you? No, you really don’t care that I’ve slept with other men? It doesn’t bother you?”

“Why would it bother me? I’ve slept with other men. I doubt you were that good for the first guy you fucked, so I count myself lucky that I got you as a more experienced lover. Do you care that I’ve fucked other guys?”

“No, of course not, but you’re basically an Earthling for one thing, but you’re a warrior. It’s expected.”

“That’s stupid. Why should it be any different for mages?” Piccolo grumbled.

“Because we are typically the ones to bear the children. They don’t want us getting knocked up,” Dende said with a sneer.

Piccolo laughed and said, “Last I checked Nameks don’t get knocked up from anal.”

Dende snarled, “No, but there is the assumption that if you let them fuck your ass, you might let them fuck your _theadur_ too.”

“Also ridiculous. Mages know as well as warriors the permanence of that situation. Which is why I can’t believe you’re even entertaining the idea of letting Ulitka…do that. Makes me sick to think of him hurting you. Do you want me to kill him? I’d be happy to make him disappear.”

Dende smiled, but groaned, “Oh, gods, Piccolo, then you’ll be blamed for taking another of Namek’s chosen warriors.”

Piccolo chuckled. “First of all, I don't care what anyone but you thinks. Second, _Ulitka_ _’s_ a chosen warrior? Good gods, things are bad in the village, aren’t they?”

“So it would seem,” Dende said drily. His eyes took on the dead look they'd had earlier, as if he was seeing all the way into his grim potential future.

Piccolo got Dende to look at him, to meet his eyes. Piccolo had already professed his love, what was one more ridiculous confession? He tipped Dende's mouth to kiss him and said, “I mean if they’re really concerned about a strong line or whatever their bullshit reason is for trying to make you be with that asshole, they should be encouraging you to mate with me. I’m so much stronger than him it’s laughable. And better in bed. And less of a twat. And taller. And I'll treat you well. Fuck you well.”


	7. Bottled Up

Dende gaped at Piccolo’s suggestion that they become _atheannas_. Dende’s silence stung. Piccolo said, the tears bursting out of him, “I can’t be worse than fucking Ulitka?! I mean…I’m better at fucking, at least, right?!” Piccolo covered his face. How humiliating to be lesser than _Ulitka_. Why had he stayed at all after that first unexpected _peluwsa_? He could have saved them both misery if Dende would rather be stuck with Ulitka than Piccolo.

“Oh no! Piccolo, no! Of course not, you were wonderful! Piccolo, shush, here, come here, calm down,” Dende said and pulled Piccolo down into a kiss.

Piccolo yanked away. He shoved Dende away from him and started squeegeeing the ajisa off his body. He slogged toward the edge of the vat. This time he made it, gripped the edge, and vaulted out. He stomped toward the stalls and to rinse himself off. He hoped he could reach Goku telepathically from here.

Before he made it to the showers, Dende slammed into him from behind. Dende hauled him roughly into one of the more private cubicles in the corner. He huffed, “Would you please stop inferring my feelings when I haven’t said anything!? It is infuriating, Piccolo! Today has been a lot! I didn’t even know you were a sexual creature, let alone that you would ever…ever…be romantically involved with someone!”

“It doesn’t make me feel better that you thought I was some kind of prude automaton!” Piccolo snapped.

“Of course that isn’t how I perceived you! As I mentioned earlier, you aren’t an automaton, but you are an _enigma_ to me. You have an excellent poker face, Piccolo.”

“What does it matter? Fuck, I don’t want to talk anymore. I should have gone home earlier before…before everything. Gods, worse than fucking Ulitka. I feel fucking disgusting,” Piccolo said, relieved that he’d brought his stoned tears under control. He reached out mentally to Goku, _Hey! Goku! Come get me on New Namek, please? I’ll owe you._

_Huh, Piccolo? Feels like you’re with Dende. Why can’t he bring you home?_

_None of your fucking business. Will you do it or not? It’ll only take you a couple minutes. Please? Seriously, I’ll do whatever you want in exchange—_

Dende interrupted Piccolo’s mental conversation, wrapping his arms around Piccolo’s neck and tugging him down for a kiss. Piccolo turned to the side as he heard Goku say, _Okay, okay. Now?_

_Give me a few minutes. I’m really sticky._

“Stop it, Dende. Fucking lord of lords. You got laid, leave me alone,” Piccolo said and squirmed out of the younger man’s arms, scrubbing himself vigorously. Dende tried to help and Piccolo swatted his hands away. “Go finish making your ajisa. You can give it to Ulitka as a fucking mating gift. I’m not mentoring whoever your replacement is, you can do that yourself. Stop fucking touching me!” Piccolo roared when Dende spread his hands on the top of Piccolo’s ass.

Dende closed his eyes and Piccolo could hear the murmuring of another telepathic conversation. Great, so Dende was feeling him up while maybe talking to fucking Ulitka. Why _Ulitka_? Piccolo wasn’t surprised that Dende didn’t want to be Piccolo’s _atheanna_ , Dende had been ignoring his gentle advances for such a long time. But to be backed into choosing the lesser of two shitty options and choosing _Ulitka_ over Piccolo? It was an unbearable blow to his heart, but also his pride.

“I am sick of you being such an obstinate asshole just because I take a moment to compose my thoughts before speaking! It’s not unreasonable to have a moment of reflection when someone asks to be your lifelong mate, Piccolo! Goku is _not_ picking you up! You don’t get to run away after saying something like that!” Dende shouted.

Other Nameks were looking at them curiously. A few clearly recognized Piccolo and they were drawing a crowd. Dende growled and said much more quietly. “Clean off and then we’re going to go finish crushing our ajisa.”

“Do it yourself. You can ask fucking _Ulitka_ to help you.”

“I don’t want Ulitka, Piccolo! You just…you just…I didn’t even know you cared for me as a _friend_ until today. I know you said you loved me in the ajisa, but I thought it was the ajisa talking. To have you so casually suggest we pair-bond was startling. I was taken aback at the kindness and selflessness of your suggestion. Stop trying to make me out a villain just because you’re insecure!” Dende whispered, his voice shaking.

“I’m not…” Piccolo trailed off. “What? It’s not selfless, trust me. That’s not why I suggested it. I don’t want to mislead you into thinking I’m some kind of martyr for offering. It was stupid. I should have left sooner. I shouldn’t have come at all. Fucking hell.”

“What? But I’m so glad you came with me. I’ve had so much fun. I’m sorry they interrupted us and that I’ve been stressed. I…I…I don’t want to rush into anything. If I had to choose this very moment, of course I would choose you. But I wish that we could spend more time together first. Is that so unreasonable? I do _not_ want Ulitka. I would only do it to be a good son and brother and Namek.”

“How is that being any of those things? You’d be entering into…into…into what would amount to sex-slavery! Breeding slavery!” Piccolo said and now there were so many people he was uncomfortable. “Fine, I’ll go back in the vat so people stop looking at me like a zoo animal. Fuck, I’m still really high!”

They flew to the vat and Piccolo huddled against the side to hide from prying eyes. Piccolo whispered, “Do you even want to bear children? I never pegged you for the carrier type.”

Dende’s eyes widened and he blushed. He averted his gaze and crossed his arms. “Well, it seems you know me better than I know you, because no, I’m not particularly excited about bearing a child.”

“Well, not that it matters, but _I_ am. One of the things I hate about New Namek is the weird insistence that mages always bear the young. Why? You guys are all smaller and have more delicate frames. It doesn’t even make sense from a biological perspective.”

“But…Piccolo…Warriors don’t lay eggs.”

“What? Yes they do. My father was a warrior and I was an egg,” Piccolo said, baffled.

“Piccolo, as I understand, you are the reincarnation of your Demon Clan father, and while you are very obviously a warrior, that type of asexual reproduction isn’t having a child, it’s cloning. No new soul is created. To create a soul, two Nameks must mate.”

“Yeah, well, be that as it may, I want to be the pregnant one, assuming anyone deigns to mate with me,” Piccolo mumbled, crossing his arms. He hated Nail for allowing him to believe that he even could be pregnant. He could practically hear his melded other half laughing at him.

Dende wrapped his arms around Piccolo slowly, like he was afraid Piccolo would skitter away. Dende’s mouth covered Piccolo’s, but Piccolo kept his mouth firmly shut. Dende stopped trying to kiss him and frowned. “Don’t be like this, my demon.”

“I’m not your fucking demon. Obviously. Just your prude fucking acquaintance.”

“Piccolo! Just because I assumed you weren’t sexually active doesn’t mean I thought less of you! Enjoying sex isn’t necessary and many people don’t. There's nothing wrong with that. As I mentioned, you are very adept at hiding your feelings, perhaps even to the point of doing it when you don’t mean to do so,” Dende caressed his face and continued, “But it is very apparent that you _are_ sexual. I have no worries on that front, my demon.”

“Stop calling me that! It’s making me feel worse! Gods, it’s fine to reject me, but you don’t need to taunt me!” Piccolo said and jerked his head away from the touch. “You got your inebriated fucking out of your system, Goku will be here in a few minutes, and he’ll be less annoyed if I’m not fucking _sticky_. Let me get cleaned up.”

“No. He’s not coming. I told him not to and said I would banish him to hell if he came.”

“What? You don’t have the power to do that,” Piccolo said, surprised that Dende believed he had such an ability.

“Goku is absurdly gullible and I’m not above using that to my advantage. Of course I can’t banish him. But he doesn’t know that and he will never believe you over me.”

“But you’re the one who’s lying!”

“Indeed, but is this the face of someone who would lie,” Dende gave Piccolo a wide-eyed, guileless look of complete innocence.

“You little shit! That was my ride home!” Piccolo bit out, still trying to escape Dende’s tenacious embrace.

“I like when you get all pissed off. You’re very cute. But no, he wasn't. I am your ride home.”

“I want you to leave me alone! This whole fucking day has been humiliating.”

Dende grabbed his chin in a surprisingly painful grip and stared into his eyes. “How was this humiliating? I thought we enjoyed each other?”

“Yeah, the sex was great, but I wish I hadn’t gotten my hopes up. Fuck, please tell Goku you won’t banish him, Dende, I just want to go home,” Piccolo said in a voice that bordered on sniveling. Piccolo hated feeling so disadvantaged. Maybe that was why Dende was the only man he’d ever developed feelings for simply because he was unattainable, completely disinterested, and made Piccolo feel light-headed simply by smiling at him.

Dende’s eyelids dropped and he put his mouth almost on Piccolo’s and purred, “No…You said you would do the Ajisa Festival with me. So do the damned Festival!”

Piccolo didn't want to give in to Dende’s mouth, but it was right there and Piccolo was so high. When Dende pressed his lips to Piccolo’s, insistent but not demanding, Piccolo succumbed. Dende tasted so good and felt so good and before Piccolo knew what was happening, Dende was frotting with him in the increasingly liquid ajisa, Piccolo’s hands engulfing his perfect little ass.

After making out for a while, Piccolo grumbled, “What are you going to do if Moori and Ulitka come back? Because it seems like they will. And I refrained from killing Ulitka once already, but I don’t know if I can manage again.”

“Then let’s hurry and finish pulping our ajisa and bottling the spoils so we can escape back to Earth before they return,” Dende said, giggling as they sank deeper in the fruit, holding hands.

“You…you’re coming back to Earth?”

“For now, at least. I…I need to think. And if you can stop being petulant, perhaps we could spend more time together.”

Piccolo gave Dende a withering look and said, “Hey, I’ve put my soft underbelly out enough today. You know where I stand. I’m not going to grovel for your affection.”

“Don’t be such a spoilsport, Piccolo. For a man who trained for years on end for one fight, you seem to expect instant gratification in your interpersonal relationships.”

“Pining away for years on end trying to get your attention can hardly be considered instant gratification, Dende,” Piccolo grumped before realizing that he sounded pathetic, yet again.

Dende’s eyes widened. He said nothing, but kissed Piccolo more. Piccolo had no idea what to make of that, but was also too blitzed to try to understand. He started stomping around in the ajisa and growled, “Does ajisa come with a fucking hangover?”

“No, that’s one of the joys of ajisa,” Dende said, still trying to touch Piccolo.

Piccolo ladled a pile of mush into his hand. It didn’t help that the shit tasted amazing and he was hungry. “So, I can have as much as I want?”

“I believe so, though I’ve never put it to the test in any aggressive way,” Dende said warily.

Piccolo slurped it up and followed it with another handful, but when he went for the third, Dende swatted Piccolo’s hand away from his mouth with more force than Piccolo thought was strictly necessary. “Hey, what the fuck, Dende?!”

“Enough, Piccolo, for the sake of _this_ god. You’ll be stoned until next week if you don't stop. I’m sorry I upset you by not agreeing to spend my life with you on the spot having never spent more than a few hours together here and there.”

“You asshole! I…I was just saying that if you were really going to martyr yourself to have stronger _children_ I am clearly the better genetic package for that. I’m here and obviously more than willing to fuck you, you might as well pop out some actually powerful kids instead of Ulitka’s weakling spawn. Fuck this, I can just go wait in the wilderness if you’re going to keep picking on me for trying to be…to be…to be helpful!”

“I think we are too stoned to have this conversation, Piccolo!” Dende said, his face distraught and his pupils were even bigger.

“Then let’s finish up, you can take me home, and you can come back and enjoy your festival and your new mate,” Piccolo said, calming his voice to try to sound less despondent than he was. His hard-on throbbed. He muttered, “What is in this stuff? I cannot get rid of my fucking erection!”

Dende snickered, but quickly devolved into wheezing, teary laughter as he flopped his whole body around in the ajisa. “Oh dear, my demon, the ajisa has no such effect!”

“Bullshit, everyone here is doing what we’re doing!”

“No, they aren’t. Some are, the established couples and probably some of the younger Namek re-settlers, but many are just contenting themselves with the joy of blazed _peluwsa_ , which, to be fair, is quite lovely.”

“Yeah, it was pretty nice, except the whole baring my soul part,” Piccolo said and surreptitiously slurped up another handful. The world was actually falling apart and Piccolo realized that last dose might have been overkill. His mouth no longer felt capable of forming words.

Dende said several things to him before slithering over onto Piccolo with a movement that was distinctly surreal. Piccolo sloshed back against the wall of the vat, but Dende’s hand was under the ajisa. Dende gripped Piccolo’s cock and Piccolo tried to protest, but he couldn’t form any words at all. He pleaded for mercy with his eyes, but Dende only met his eyes and leaned into a deep kiss.

Piccolo, helpless in the face of his own over-stoned verbal paralysis, did the last thing he wanted to do. The whole reason he got so fucking stoned he couldn’t speak was to avoid this thing. But as his voice remained stalwartly unavailable, Piccolo tilted his forehead forward and twisted his antennae around Dende’s. Piccolo poured his heartache into Dende. Dende’s tongue curled into his mouth, exploring, but his hand went away as he straddled Piccolo.

Dende’s wishes controlled Piccolo like a marionette. Piccolo stood, pushing Dende’s legs up over his shoulders. Piccolo’s cock throbbed to be inside Dende. Dende was folded in half, still kissing him, with his steely ass filling Piccolo’s hands so perfectly.

Dende breathed, “Yes…”

Piccolo drove inside the smaller man hard and Dende growled with pleasure. Piccolo used his physical strength while Dende used his psychic strength. Dende controlled Piccolo’s body in the most literal sense and Piccolo thought he would feel frustrated to be puppeteered like that, but it was surprisingly hot. It meant Dende was essentially fucking himself so he could teach Piccolo the minutiae of how to pleasure Dende. Piccolo fucking _loved_ it. On top of that, Dende wasn't selfish about it, he opened his mind so wide that Piccolo was inside him mentally, like fucking his mind, and feeling all the sensations Piccolo fucking him brought, in addition to Piccolo’s own pleasure.

Piccolo’s hand played lightly over Dende’s cock, just grazing it, brushing his thumb over the ajisa slick head, but never really gripping it. Intriguing. Piccolo always jerked himself off pretty aggressively and it never occurred to him to edge himself this way, which was exactly what Dende was doing. Piccolo’s hand tugged Dende’s balls gently.

Piccolo didn’t know how to interpret the fact that Dende used Piccolo’s fingers to slip inside Dende’s sheath, plunging his long fingers deep, sending a thick, rippling rope of pleasure snapping up through Piccolo’s belly that coiled back into a tight knot as Dende found a way to move everything in tandem. Piccolo’s left hand on Dende’s ass moved him on Piccolo’s cock, Piccolo’s right hand fingered Dende’s sheath, feeling the velvet soaked in ajisa and realizing he’d never touched the velvety interior of a theadur when it was wet, and Dende’s own hand taking over the soft teasing touch on his own cock. Piccolo could feel that too, though.

Feeling both being fingered by Piccolo and the fingering, while not really managing any of it was bizarrely liberating. It was like being the most submissive sub ever while simultaneously getting ridden like he was a dom. It was incredible. Piccolo didn’t know if Dende had done the same with other Nameks and he didn’t care. Even the mental image of Dende fucking Scythe like this made Piccolo gasp into Dende’s panting mouth.

Dende pushed back a resounding, _No one has ever touched my sheath_. As if to fully make his point about the intimacy of the act, he added another one of Piccolo’s fingers and reached deeper inside that tight, juicy heat. Piccolo wanted to eat Dende out again after fingering him this way, but surely there was a limit to how many orgasms two men could achieve together in one day. Maybe Piccolo’s balls were as regenerative as the rest of him. If only his heart was so resilient.

_Can’t you relax and enjoy even this_? Dende’s chiding voice came again in his mind and made Piccolo laugh into his mouth.

_Is this some fucked up kind of massage therapy to make my muscles unknot? The God of Earth special treatment?_

“I’m much more concerned about my own muscles at the moment, Piccolo, specifically the ones that are going to grip your fucking cock so hard whenever you’re ready for it. Oh gods, my sheath is close too…Yes…Yes…Piccolo, fuck, yes…” Dende shivered on him and his _theadur’s_ powerful grip rocked Piccolo’s stoned-as-fuck senses. Piccolo briefly felt like his whole soul was in that perfect, velveteen organ. He imagined filling Dende with his seed, but that somehow felt wrong. Instead he wanted Dende to fill his. To bear Dende’s baby. But it didn’t change the intensity of his longing for that connection with the man fucking him so perfectly.

Dende’s ass pulled at Piccolo’s prick, pulsing and seizing like it was sucking him. Piccolo spent himself inside Dende’s juice-slick heat, unable even to scream Dende’s name as his euphoric verbal paralysis continued. As that happened, Dende’s cum slipped out over Piccolo’s knuckles and an overwhelming urge to finger his own _theadur_ smacked into him with the ecstasy of an orgasm. The desire for Dende to be inside him, to mate with him inundated Piccolo with the same blooming pleasure as a climax. The tangled rope of ecstasy in Piccolo’s abdomen felt like Dende yanked it out through Piccolo’s sheath. It was so real, despite the fact that it wasn’t, that Piccolo could feel every ridge and bit of texture on the rope. With sublime fascination, Piccolo rode the wave of ecstasy as his _theadur_ came in rapturous, deep throbs.

Time’s syrupy, inconsistent quality due to the fact that Piccolo’s blood was likely pure ajisa at this point meant he had no idea when to let Dende go. They held each other close, Piccolo’s strength keeping their heads above the ajisa, but barely. They kissed more and Dende’s antennae tormented Piccolo’s.

Piccolo didn’t feel like they'd separated when he realized they were finally focusing on squishing the ajisa. He still couldn't speak and he still had a godsdamned hard-on. At this point, he didn’t care what Dende said, the ajisa had to be causing this. It was unnatural.

Piccolo’s silence allowed him to slip into a meditative state while he turned the ajisa into a liquid. Piccolo was putting his strength and endurance to all sorts of new uses today. Piccolo felt Dende’s movements like they were his own. It was sensual, feeling both their bodies working together, feeling Dende’s muscles strain and tire while Piccolo didn’t even break a sweat.

Piccolo’s eyes stung when they finished. He liked this companionable silence with Dende, working together in the lull after so much sexual pleasure. Tears slipped down his cheeks, but he made no noise. Dende turned to him and caressed his sticky cheeks, brushing the tears away with his thumbs. He rose up and kissed Piccolo with a seductive little smirk.

Dende’s antennae slinked up and down Piccolo’s, making him gasp. Dende murmured, “Let’s bottle our _ranuelett_ and get you home. I have no idea what will happen to you after so much ajisa, but I imagine you’re tired.”

Piccolo nodded. Dende covered his mouth with his hand. Piccolo’s voicelessness amused the little Kami. Piccolo wanted to be mad, but he was too high for that. He swatted Dende’s ass and flew to get Dende’s growlers. Flying so stoned was a trip.

Dende showed him how to use the straining funnels and the taps on the metal drum. They floated side by side so they didn’t get their feet dirty, and filled all Dende’s growlers. Piccolo used magic to make more, his own decorated with nude Nameks that were very clearly Dende and Piccolo.

Dende’s cheeks bloomed with color, visible even through the purple stains from the ajisa. Piccolo said, _You’re adorable. This makes you blush_? Dende’s eyes slid to Piccolo and he shrugged, as mute as Piccolo.

Once they’d filled Piccolo’s too, he tried his voice again and managed, “Should we take these to Earth and come back for more? There’s still a ton in the vat.” Speaking felt strange and ungainly.

“We certainly can. It seems you have a taste for it,” Dende said with a little giggle.

Piccolo said, “Yeah. I think I’m going to want to be stoned for a while after this.”

Dende cocked his head, his eyebrows coming together, but he didn’t press Piccolo. Piccolo hated that Dende still seemed not to understand the depth of Piccolo’s feelings. Dende guided them to get cleaned off, and Piccolo put them back in shorts, chuckling that theirs were lost somewhere in the mush still in the vat. 

Piccolo slung both giant mesh bags of ajisa-juice over his shoulders and said, “Does it ferment so you get high and drunk at the same time?” Piccolo didn’t think the two together would be pleasant.

“Oh, no, the chemical that gives ajisa such lovely effects is also antimicrobial. There are people who manage to distill it into booze, but it tastes awful and is rather a lot. And that definitely gives one a hangover.”

“You have this whole side that I didn’t know existed, Dende. I never imagined you getting high and fucking hot warriors on a whim.”

Dende’s face crumpled. “I…It’s not like that Piccolo. I…I’ve had very few partners. I’m just…I…I like sex, or I did until Ulitka. This…um…what…what we did is not something I would normally do!”

Piccolo deflated even further. “No, of course not,” he said quietly. He held out his hand and Dende took it. They were on the Lookout. “Where do you want these?” Piccolo asked. Dende showed Piccolo where to put Dende’s growlers.

Piccolo set his own stash on the edge of the Lookout to take home. Dende seized his arm and they were back on New Namek in a swirly, stoned blink. Piccolo obliged when Dende asked him to make more growlers. Piccolo’s absurd dream of getting dinner and drinks after the festival came back to him and he choked down tears.

Piccolo’s head snapped up as several unwelcome chi approached. It seemed Ulitka was bringing reinforcements. Dende felt them coming too and his whole little body slumped, like his bones shrank inside him. Piccolo said, “Let’s just go before they get here.”

Dende nodded and they wrangled their growlers. Dende teleported them back to Earth and Piccolo sighed with relief. He put the growlers with Dende’s cache and said, “That should keep you in the purple clouds for a while, at least.” He turned to see why Dende wasn’t answering him.

Dende’s eyes were filled with tears. He said, “You would do it, wouldn’t you? You’d throw away your life on me to save me from him?”

Piccolo’s brows crashed together as he slowly, highly tried to make sense of this statement. He met Dende’s gigantic pupils. Piccolo said, “What? No, I wouldn’t waste my life. What?”

Dende stood only a few feet away from Piccolo, but it was too far. Dende frowned and said, “Goodbye, Piccolo. I…Thank you for doing the festival with me. Today was lovely.” Tears rolled down Dende’s cheeks out of both corners of his eyes as he lifted his fingers to his forehead. Before Piccolo could get a hand on him, he was gone.


	8. Missing Chi

“Fuck!” Piccolo growled. In his mind he shouted, _Goku_! Piccolo waited for Goku to respond. Minutes ticked by as Piccolo paced in a slippery, soupy world. The ajisa was still flowing strong in his veins. He tried to be patient. Piccolo found a clock and watched the minutes drag and gallop, his sense of time still completely distorted by the ajisa. After twenty minutes, he mentally screamed, _Goku! Fucking answer me!_

_What? Come on, man, why are you yelling at me? Dende told me I couldn’t come get you! He told me to ignore you!_

Piccolo gritted his teeth in irritation at Dende outflanking him that way. He struggled between his heart and his mind. Dende didn’t want him. Dende enjoyed fucking him, but had no interest in becoming mates. Piccolo needed to accept it. But Dende looked so defeated before he teleported. Piccolo knew right down to his bone marrow that Dende also didn’t want to mate with Ulitka.

There was no undoing Namek pair-bonding without one party dying. Piccolo had no qualms about killing Ulitka, he fucking looked forward to it, but he didn’t want Dende to experience that. Ulitka would be shitty about mating. The look Ulitka gave Dende made Piccolo sick to his stomach.

_Uh, Piccolo? Did you shout at me for a reason?_

_Shit, yeah, sorry…um…Can you take me to Dende right now_?

_What? I thought you were with Dende. I’m supposed to be working. ChiChi’s gonna kill me if I don’t get this stuff done._

_It takes you like a minute!_ Piccolo snarled mentally.

_I’m not your personal intergalactic taxi service, Piccolo!_

_Please, Goku?_

There was a long silence and Piccolo waited anxiously. But Goku’s voice was perplexed when he said, _I can’t find him. He’s just gone. Like not suppressed or something, Whis helped me refine my chi-sensing abilities. Dende’s just gone. Like he’s dead or something. Did he get hurt? What happened? Darn it! See—_ Goku broke off suddenly.

“See this is why I didn’t want to take you ‘cause now I’m all curious,” Goku said, suddenly standing next to Piccolo. “What are you wearing? Your butt looks cute in those shorts, Piccolo!”

“Godsdamnit, Goku! Just because you and Vegeta started fucking doesn’t mean you have to thirst for every ass you see!”

“Don’t be mean! I was trying to give you a compliment! I’m not thirsty. I had a huge bottle of water right before I came. And don’t tell ‘Geta I said that. I don’t quite get how we can both have wives and he still gets so jealous. He can be kind of moody sometimes, actually,” Goku said, scratching the back of his head.

Piccolo facepalmed. “Yeah, Vegeta is definitely a little moody. But can we focus on how you can’t sense Dende?”

“Why are you dressed in just little shorty shorts?” Goku said.

“Fucking hell, Goku, go find Vegeta if you can’t stop!”

“I thought you wanted me to help you find Dende! Besides, ‘Geta’s mad at me.”

“What? Why? No, never mind. You two are fucking exasperating with your dumb lovers’ quarrels.”

“I just wanted to try—“

Piccolo interrupted, “Nope! Nope, nope, nope! I don’t want to know. What do you mean you can’t find Dende? Can you contact King Kai? Maybe Dende’s up with him?”

Goku’s face crumpled up like he was trying to figure out a joke. Piccolo could hear the telepathic muttering, but couldn’t make out the words. Goku nodded a few times. After a moment he came out of his trance, just shy of smoke floating out his ears, and said, “King Kai is trying to find him, but he said it’s weird too.”

“Fuck! Should I go to New Namek to try to find him? What if he’s there and is just really suppressing his chi?”

“Not to be a downer, but don’t you think if he’s hiding this hard it’s maybe so you don’t find him? What’s up with you two anyway?”

“Nothing, not your business. I’m worried about him, though. I think he’s about to make a very shitty, life-altering decision. I need to talk to him.”

“Well…not to be nosy, but you also look a little…high? Or something? Your eyes are serious crazy right now and your chi is all over the map.”

“Yeah, I’m super stoned, but that’s not the point—“

“Tell me what’s going on then. If I’m gonna get in trouble for not finishing planting today, I want to at least hear how _you_ got high.”

Piccolo gave Goku the PG-13 version of what had happened on New Namek, but the Saiyan pouted and said, “I feel like you’re leaving out all the good parts!”

“Goku, I’m not gonna tell you how Dende and I had sex!”

“Come on, Piccolo…” Goku whined, jumping up and down, “I want to have something juicy to tell Vegeta!”

“Gross! I don’t want my relationship with Dende to be porn for you two!”

“Did you guys make videos!?”

“What!? No! And if we did I would _not_ share them with you two. Gods. Look, will you take me so I can look for him or not?”

“I don’t think you should. He left you on purpose, Piccolo. I’m sorry to say it, but that seems like a pretty clear cut ‘no’ on the whole couple thing.”

“Don’t you get it? It’s a permanent thing! It’s not like dating! The guy is abusive!”

“I mean, Dende’s a god, it’s not like he can’t handle himself. Some people just feel really strongly about loyalty to their families. I think you have to respect that, but even if you don’t, the best I could do is take you to Moori, which sounds like it might not go great.”

Piccolo wanted to scream and cry and tear his antennae off he was so frustrated. Also still really stoned. So he was having trouble weighing the consequences of anything. He whined, “Fine, will you keep a feeler out for his chi though? If he reappears anywhere, would you take me to him? I just want to talk to him. I think he misunderstood my reasoning.”

“I’ll try. Sorry about all this. It sounds really hard. I didn’t deal well when Vegeta rejected me at first, but maybe it’ll be like that. Or maybe he and this guy will let you come in as a third. ChiChi and Bulma aren’t into that, but they don’t mind our stuff. Obviously. Or we’d be dead.”

“Yeah, you especially.”

“If you’re ever…interested…Vegeta and I were thinking that it’d be fun to try with three powerful guys,” Goku said, poking his forefingers against each other with his eyebrows raised hopefully.

Piccolo chuffed out a little laugh and said, “Yeah, if things are really hopeless with Dende, I may need some rebound ass.”

Goku’s delight was not encouraging. Piccolo snarled, “You’re my friend, you’re not supposed to be excited for the guy I love to reject me!”

“Oh, right. Sorry. Maybe Dende would be interested too?”

“Ugh…let me see if I can get him back to sleeping with me first,” Piccolo said. He had no interest in sharing Dende with the greedy Saiyans. It was crazy enough fucking one Saiyan, fucking two would be like a pornographic gladiator situation. Goku gave a little wave and disappeared. Piccolo smirked. Goku’s chi didn’t go back to his farm. Soon Goku’s chi was spiking along with Vegeta’s.

* * *

As days passed and Piccolo heard nothing from Dende and his chi remained absent, Piccolo began to panic. It was possible he’d gone straight to Ulitka and Ulitka had killed him for what he’d done with Piccolo. Piccolo spent most of his sleepless nights in the guest suite at the Lookout reaching out into the universe for Dende. Wherever Dende was, he didn’t want to be found, that was for sure.

Weeks and then months crept by Piccolo in his loneliness. Piccolo kept track of the calendar of New Namek too, and when the Ajisa festival rolled around, Piccolo decided he couldn’t take it anymore. He was going to go to New Namek and at least confront Ulitka and Dende’s family. What if they had killed Dende? The thought sent Piccolo’s chi so high that Goku reached out to him.

_Piccolo? What’s going on?_

_Nothing. Take me to New Namek. Now._

_Pretty rude way to ask for a favor, man._

_Please take me to New Namek?_

_Dende’s still not there._

_I know._

_Well, I’ve been meaning to talk to Moori about getting a new Guardian for Earth anyway, since you don’t seem that into the job._ Goku said and appeared next to Piccolo. Piccolo was in his ajisa attire, reminiscing about the feel of Dende’s small, strong hands sliding the vest off Piccolo’s big shoulders.

“Thanks, Goku. Sorry I was a dick.”

Goku’s brows were furrowed and he had a rare frown on his face. “Man, you’re still broken up about him, aren’t you?”

“Yeah. I am.”

“Piccolo…it’s been over a year.”

“So? How long did you pine for Vegeta before you got the nerve up to approach him?”

“Well…that was different. We’re married. I just…are you sure you want to do this?”

“Yeah, what if that fucker murdered Dende and I’ve just been sitting around?”

Goku sighed and took Piccolo’s hand, touched his fingers to his forehead, and they rematerialized on New Namek, right outside Moori’s house. Piccolo searched the interior, but found no trace of Dende. He turned to Goku and said, “Hey, sorry to be a pain, but can I just reach out when I’m ready to come home? I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“Uh, sure, I guess so. Good luck!”

Piccolo nodded and strode to Moori’s door, knocking and staring at the eaves since Piccolo was so tall. Cargo opened the door. Cargo was the only member of Dende’s broad and loosely defined family that Piccolo could stand. And seemingly the only one who didn’t completely hate Piccolo.

Cargo shoved at Piccolo, trying to knock him over, perhaps, but Piccolo was easily triple Cargo’s weight. He stared down at the small, chubby Namek and said, “What was that for?”

“What did you do to him? What did you do!?” Cargo screamed and jumped to try to slap Piccolo. Piccolo caught his wrist and held him in the air.

“I take it Dende’s not here, then?”

“What? Of course he’s not here, you _murdered_ him,” Cargo said and wept.

Piccolo said, aghast, “I didn’t _murder_ Dende. I haven’t seen him since the fucking Ajisa festival. He took me back to Earth and teleported away. I assumed he came here and that maybe Ulitka murdered him.”

“I should have when I had the chance,” a slimy, familiar voice said behind Piccolo. Ulitka was tall for a Namek, but Piccolo was tall for any bipedal species. He still towered over Ulitka when he turned to find Ulitka behind him on the walkway to Moori’s house. There was something unsettling about Ulitka’s chi and Piccolo kept himself wary, on guard. But it didn’t feel like a threat so much as a fear. Maybe Ulitka had killed Dende and was terrified Piccolo would find him out.

Piccolo growled, “You spineless piece of shit, what did you do with him? His chi is just missing! Gone. I hoped maybe he was here just suppressing it perfectly. Do you mean neither of you has seen him since last festival?”

Ulitka shoved past Piccolo into Moori’s house. Cargo tried to close the door but Piccolo easily overpowered him and ducked inside the domed house. Moori glowered at Piccolo from his seat of honor at the table where he sat, waited on by the younger members of his family. The little Nameks scampered out of the house, their eyes awed as they gawked up at Piccolo.

“Get out of my house,” Moori said, his voice shaking.

“Not until you tell me anything you know about Dende.”

“You’re the last one to see him. He probably committed suicide after the shame of letting you defile him for his intended.”

“He didn’t want to be with Ulitka,” Piccolo said and had to use all his training to keep his voice level and civil.

Ulitka sighed and said, “Yes he did. He told you a tale so he could use you, Piccolo. You’re such a simpleton. We agreed to be _atheanna_ , we made love—“

“What you did was not ‘making love,’ Ulitka and I pity anyone who has the misfortune of bottoming for you again.”

Ulitka’s lip twitched and his eyes darted to Moori. Moori’s eyes narrowed. He said, “Ulitka? You never told me that you and Dende had slept together. When we made our arrangement, you specifically said it was important that Dende be a virgin and that you wouldn’t…do that…until after the _atheanna_ ceremony.”

“He insisted. As I mentioned when he refused to come back for all those weeks leading up to the Ajisa Harvest Festival, it seems Dende was busier than I realized. I chose to…sample the goods…since he’d been sharing them so liberally around New Namek,” Ulitka said.

Piccolo’s vision clouded and his heart hammered as he growled, “What Dende did with others isn’t anyone’s business but Dende’s. You’re disgusting, Ulitka. But I don’t care about any of—“

“No, that is exactly the problem, demon. You don’t care. Which is how we wound up without him. The best hope for our clan was to have Dende and Ulitka mate. Their offspring would be powerful—“

Piccolo hissed, “If you just want Dende to be a broodmare, Moori, why not have him mate with me? I’m so much stronger than Ulitka it’s hilarious. You might hate me, but I could destroy every Namek warrior in your village, probably every Namek on the planet, without breaking a sweat.”

Moori snarled, “You disgust me. You committed the gravest Namek sin there is! I would never allow Dende to mate with you! You’re filth. I don’t care how strong you are. I’d rather take generations to make our clan more powerful than stoop to letting your genes sully ours.”

Piccolo laughed bitterly. He pointed to Ulitka and said, “Is Ulitka seriously the best you can scrape up? You could throw a dart in Yapuural and hit someone stronger than Ulitka. Nicer too. Why would you doom Dende to a life with someone like this? Don’t you care about his happiness at all?”

“Serving his people makes Dende happy. He is a selfless man.”

“No, you’ve convinced him that he has to in order to have the love of his family. _This_ ,” Piccolo said and gestured dismissively at Ulitka, “is why he’s disappeared. I don’t know how he’s masked his chi so effectively, but I’m positive he did it to escape this thing you would force on him for your own ends. You should have seen his face after you two interrupted us. He was so depressed about acquiescing to Ulitka.” Alarms went off in Piccolo’s head when Ulitka visibly stifled a smirk. It was unsettling, like Ulitka had a secret.

“Yes, because he knew he’d disappointed his family and his intended!” Moori said with a derisive snort of laughter.

“His eyes were fucking _dead_ when he spoke of his ‘duty’ to you, Moori. Guru would be so disappointed in you,” Piccolo said, deciding to break out the big guns.

Moori’s face darkened and he said, “And I wonder what he’d think of you absorbing his chosen son?”

“Nail chose that path. And he had Guru’s blessing. Nail was loyal to Guru. He never would have done it without Guru’s permission.”

“I refuse to believe Nail would abandon his people—“

“He didn’t! He didn’t know anyone would be resurrected! I didn’t know either! The Earth dragon balls had that capability, not the Namekian ones.”

Moori looked like a cornered animal. He bit out, “I’m sick of your voice. You sicken me. Get out of my house. You’ve taken everything from our clan! First Nail, now our finest mage too, Dende. You used him once and disposed of him. Or perhaps you absorbed him too?”

Piccolo shook his head and rolled his eyes. “No. I would never absorb Dende. And it would do nothing for me. He is a powerful mage, but I am too. There’s very little he can do that I can’t, and all of them are a matter of knowledge, not innate ability. You really haven’t seen him? He didn’t come here after he left me on Earth? I just want to know that he’s okay, Moori, surely you can support that, right?”

Moori’s eyes shifted briefly to Ulitka as if evaluating him. Piccolo wondered if it had really never occurred to Moori that Ulitka had hurt Dende. Moori said, “Ulitka, we’re fine, please, you and Cargo go enjoy the festival. There is little to enjoy with this dark news. Let the purple clouds take your troubles away.”

Ulitka looked Piccolo up and down and sneered. He said, “You’re a traitor to your species. It figures he’d go crawling to you after his pathetic behavior.”

Piccolo saw Moori’s face shift in his peripheral vision. Maybe Moori didn’t know quite how awful Ulitka really was. Ulitka and Cargo left Moori and Piccolo alone in the gloom. Piccolo levitated, cross-legged to try to calm his nerves.

Moori said, “I…Do you really have reason to believe Ulitka might have harmed Dende?”

“He _did_ harm Dende. Dende was broken up with him, but too afraid to tell you. They broke up because Ulitka hurt him. Physically, Moori, not emotionally. You heard what he just said, right? No one who cares for another person speaks that way.”

“Ulitka spoke ill of Dende that day, but I thought it was from a place of heartbreak after we caught you two together in the ajisa—“

“Still, Moori, come on! You should have stayed and heard what he said to Dende after you left. It was horrible. He’s a monster. Look, I know you don’t like me and we have our quibbles about the Nail stuff, but I love Dende. I don’t want anything to happen to him. I’ve waited to see if he would contact me, but even the Lord of Worlds can’t get a bead on him. Do you know anything? Did he come here after the festival?”

“What I was going to say is that I never saw Ulitka again that afternoon. I never saw Dende either, and unfortunately I blocked out his chi after…after it became apparent he hadn’t heeded my command to return home. Ulitka asked my permission to go get him, bring him to heel. He gathered a few of his friends—“

“Ulitka has friends?” Piccolo said, genuinely surprised. As surprised as when Dende told Piccolo that he’d been seeing Ulitka. Was Piccolo the only one who saw what a spineless monster Ulitka was?

“Well, a few. He…he’s a proud man. He is the village’s top warrior, aside from Scythe, but don’t say that around Ulitka—“

Piccolo cut in, “Why wouldn’t you marry Dende to Scythe then? Scythe is a good guy—“

Moori held up a hand and said, “Yes, I wished that, but Scythe…Scythe never got over Nail. Even though they couldn’t have become _atheanna_. He loved Nail deeply.”

“I thought Nail was with Halzun?”

Moori seemed embarrassed by the question, but answered, “Well, yes, Nail was…rather…promiscuous. And he wasn’t _supposed_ to be with anyone. He took a vow of chastity to be the Guru’s guardian.”

“Huh. That’s interesting, he didn’t let me see that before we were more melded than we are now,” Piccolo said, “He didn’t let me see Scythe either.”

“Well, they were a bit of a romantic tragedy, came up together, both strong and always competitive, they both thought they would become _atheanna_. Then they came of age, announced their intentions and learned the unwelcome reality that two warriors can’t mate.”

“What? That’s weird. Why?”

“Tradition. Anyway, that was when Nail became Guru’s guardian. The vow of chastity was probably his nod to Scythe. They were very…loyal…to one another.”

“So Halzun?”

“Well…as I said, Nail was promiscuous. It was an interesting situation. I know you upset Halzun with your callous comments.”

Piccolo shrugged. “So who went with Ulitka to find Dende?”

“I don’t know which warriors, but he took three with him, hoping to catch you high enough that they could have a little revenge for what you’d done to Dende. At the time I didn’t realize that…that…that Dende was no longer pure anyway.”

“It’s super weird that you all care about that. Why shouldn’t he have a sex life? He’s an adult.”

“Because he’s a mage. It’s improper,” Moori said, clearly expecting this to be all the explanation Piccolo needed.

“That’s stupid. Would you have been less of an asshole if you knew that Ulitka had fucked him?”

Moori looked physically pained by those words. “I feel a little duped. Ulitka presented himself as a suitor for Dende specifically touting his own chastity and purity, rare in a warrior, and assured me that he wanted a traditional courtship.”

“Weird. Nothing he did makes sense to me. But you didn’t see him again?”

“The other warriors returned, but not Ulitka. I assumed perhaps he and Dende were having it out, maybe with a little ajisa for assistance.”

Piccolo gaped. “You thought they’d have sex after that?”

“I thought they might mate. It would be Ulitka’s prerogative to claim Dende in that way. I didn’t realize he was…violent. I didn’t question his absence, but then when he came the next morning asking after Dende, I was surprised. I couldn’t feel him on Earth ever, that is too far for me to sense chi and I assumed he was simply ignoring my telepathic calls. Ulitka said you undoubtedly kidnapped him and were holding him hostage, but I couldn’t reach you, not being telepathically connected the way I am with Dende.”

“You never worried?”

“As I said, I thought he’d simply absconded with you back to Earth in a fit of youthful rebellion. I was confident he’d return when he was ready to settle down and do his duty. I’m…I’m shaken to hear Ulitka speak the way he did. He spoke as though Dende were…property.”

“Uh, yeah, that’s how he treats him too. This is fucked, Moori, what if Ulitka killed him?!”

“Wouldn’t the Lord of Worlds have sensed him in the afterlife?” Moori said hopefully.

Piccolo started to speak. Stopped. Thought. After a long moment he said, “Maybe? I’ll ask Goku to speak with King Kai—“

_Piccolo!_

_King Kai?!_

_Yes! I have noted Dende’s absence with some concern since last year because it doesn’t make sense. I checked with King Yenma and Dende never passed through, so he is alive in some sense, at the very least._

_Uh…have you just been eavesdropping?_

_I’m the Lord of Worlds, Piccolo, I do as I see fit. Dende is only a rank below me in the hierarchy of the gods, so he is very much my business. You’re not doing a half bad job, though._

_Thanks?_ Piccolo said and tried to speak more, but King Kai was gone. He told Moori what King Kai had said and Moori’s face twisted as he thought.

“I don’t know, Piccolo. I don’t understand. But I’m concerned now that I never saw Ulitka that afternoon. Very concerned. What else might he have done with Dende? For all our disagreements, I love him. Now I fear for him.”

“Can I interrogate Ulitka?” Piccolo asked.

Moori looked Piccolo over and said, “You mustn’t kill him. If he’s done something, our clan will mete out justice.”

“If he did something to Dende, I don’t care what you want, I’ll tear him apart. And I’m going to find Dende. Wherever he is.”


	9. Ulitka's Secret

Piccolo contemplated Ulitka’s chi as he flew toward it. Sensing Ulitka’s energy made Piccolo’s teeth hurt. It was like nails on a chalkboard. Was it possible to hate someone so much that their very life-force made him ill? Piccolo tried to recall if it had felt so awful, last time. Ulitka’s chi felt tormented. Unbalanced. Unnatural. Perhaps he’d gone full Raskalnikov and whatever he’d done to Dende was eating him alive. Piccolo hoped so, as long as the thing he’d done hadn’t done permanent damage to Dende.

But where was Dende? Piccolo didn’t think Ulitka could IT, so there was no way he could have taken Dende somehow beyond either Piccolo or Moori’s ability to sense. Certainly not beyond Goku or King Kai. What other explanation was there if Dende hadn’t gone through King Yenma? Piccolo’s conclusion was that Dende was being held prisoner somewhere that had some sort of chi cloaking device. Bulma created one of those after Goku kept ITing into their bedroom at inopportune moments. Ulitka didn’t seem like he was intelligent enough to create such a device though, so maybe it was magical method of chi cloaking.

Piccolo suppressed his own chi the moment he left Moori’s. He prowled near where Ulitka skulked around the periphery of the festival. Other Nameks in the village veered away from him. Cargo tried to be stalwart next to Ulitka, but even he was inching away. Cargo looked as miserable as Dende had around Ulitka. Piccolo’s jaw dropped. Had Moori put Cargo next in line to mate with Ulitka after Dende’s long absence?

Piccolo focused on Cargo’s mind and whispered, _Are you supposed to mate with him, Cargo? I swear to you with Nail’s soul that I didn’t hurt Dende. He left Earth without me. I don’t know where he went, but I want to find him._

Cargo’s eyes widened only the slightest bit, but it was enough that Piccolo knew Dende’s brother had heard Piccolo. Cargo’s eyes darted nervously to Ulitka, whose antennae fluttered in the air, like somehow Ulitka had almost heard. Ulitka shouldn’t be able to hear two mages speaking like that. Piccolo’s skin tightened with the first terrified inkling of what might have happened.

Cargo spotted Piccolo and gave a minute nod in the direction of a big showering tent like the one outside Yapuural. Piccolo slunk through the shadows to the backside of the tent and waited.

Cargo took forever, but Piccolo assumed that Ulitka was controlling and possessive. Cargo trembled. He whispered, “I only have a minute or two, Piccolo. Yes. I’m doomed to mate with him. Moori is eager for our village to have a new crop of powerful warriors.”

“Do you _want_ to mate with Ulitka?” Piccolo said as quietly as he could.

“No, of course not. I found him…repugnant…before…before what he did to Dende. But since Dende’s disappearance, he…he’s scary. It’s…it’s horrible to be around him. He keeps trying to get me alone, but I’m careful. I…I suspect he will not be a kind partner,” Cargo said, his eyes downcast.

“I have a weird question. Does…does Ulitka’s chi feel…hmm…how to describe it. Does it feel like it’s screaming?”

Cargo’s eyes widened and he glanced around again. “Yes! That’s exactly it. Like I want to cover my ears. It’s not just us. The whole village is wary around him. I assumed it was just because…because Dende betrayed him with you.”

“They were broken up! He hurt Dende, you know, like, tore him up. And then he said a bunch of awful shit to Dende. To Dende! Can you even imagine being _mean_ to Dende? There’s never been a sweeter man,” Piccolo said, shaking his head and struggling to keep his chi undetectable.

Cargo’s brows peaked in the middle and slumped at the corners. “He…he…he did that with Dende? And…hurt him?”

“Yes! Good gods, all this weird Namek bullshit about sex is freaking me out. No wonder you have creeps like Ulitka. Stay away from him, Cargo. I mean it. If he gets scared I’ve figured out what he did to Dende, he may try to rush you. He might try to get you high and force it. And he’s a piece of shit, but he’s a lot stronger than you.”

“I’m a mage though. I’m not defenseless, Piccolo,” Cargo huffed.

“Yeah, well, good luck with that when he gets in a rapey mood. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Do you know where I might find Scythe?”

“Are you going to be cruel as you were with Halzun?”

“No. Gods. Halzun deserved that. He was being a complete dick to me. Nail wanted to merge. He asked me to do it. You can’t do it if the other party doesn’t want it.”

Cargo’s eyebrows crunched together even more and his eyes darted back and forth for a minute. “Yes, there is a way! Yes, you can. Oh gods. Oh gods. Oh gods.”

“Cargo? Where are you?” Ulitka called. Piccolo melted away into the shadows and Cargo hurried away.

Piccolo held his mouth. If Cargo’s freak out meant what Piccolo thought. He knew where Dende was, but he didn’t know how to get Dende back. And would Dende even be Dende after an entire year inside Ulitka? “Damnit,” Piccolo cursed quietly. He wished he’d had a few more minutes with Cargo to find out how someone could merge with an unwilling party.

Piccolo felt around for Scythe. If Scythe had slept with Dende, he might at least listen to Piccolo instead of just immediately assuming Piccolo murdered Dende for no reason.

But he stopped when he heard Ulitka berating Cargo. “You are not allowed to go off on your own like that. What if Piccolo defiled you as he defiled Dende?”

“Ulitka, that’s ridiculous. You know as well as I do that he didn’t _defile_ Dende. Dende has always had a crush on Piccolo, he just thought Piccolo was asexual. You’ve always been jealous that Dende wanted someone stronger than you. I know you’re lying about what happened. I think I know what you’ve done.”

“Shut your chubby little mouth, you cunt. You’ll do as I say or I’ll _make_ you do as I say. You think being a mage will keep you safe? Not anymore, my ignorant little intended. Today is the day anyway. Eat this.”

“No! I’m not…I’m not doing that! I…No! It’s not appropriate to do it that way, in any case. I’m not going to just roll over for you because you’re irrationally jealous of Piccolo.”

“Piccolo will cower before me. And if you don’t shut your mouth, you’ll see Dende soon enough.”

“What? What do you mean? Where’s Dende!? What have you done with him!? Surely…surely you didn’t…you couldn’t. That’s…it’s an abomination, Ulitka! You didn’t, did you?! Where is Dende?!”

“Piccolo killed him, just in a roundabout way. Now eat your fucking ajisa and be a good little slut like your brother. At least that one knew what was expected of your kind.”

Cargo’s voice cracked as he said, “Don’t call him that! What do you mean, my kind?”

“You pathetic mages. All of you think you deserve to feel special and you’re just glorified breeding stock because warriors can’t mate. So eat your ajisa. I’ll put you to use one way or another. Unless you want Piccolo to kill you too.”

“Piccolo didn’t kill Dende! You did!”

“I said shut the fuck up, you little bitch!” Ulitka hissed and a wet, strangled noise made Piccolo’s skin crawl.

Piccolo had heard enough. He darted through the tent to thehidden corner where Ulitka held Cargo by the back of his neck as he tried to shove the ajisa in his mouth. Piccolo backhanded Ulitka as he scooped Cargo up in his other arm. Ulitka didn’t fly as far as Piccolo expected. Piccolo never took his eyes of the skeevy asshole as he said, “You okay, Cargo?”

“Ye…ye…yeah,” the smaller Namek stammered. Piccolo glanced quickly to make sure he was uninjured. Cargo’s chin and teeth were smeared with the distinctive, almost opaque lavender juice of the ajisa. Ulitka had tried to force-feed him the fruit.

Piccolo watched Ulitka as he shook himself and dabbed at his cheek where it split. He bared his fangs at Piccolo. Piccolo said, “Cargo, go to Moori and tell him what we suspect about Ulitka.”

“Do you…do you think he _merged_ with Dende?”

“Yeah, unfortunately, I do think that he forced that on Dende. Probably with help from the fact that Dende was catastrophically high. Is that what you were going to say?”

“Oh gods, no! Then he’s lost forever!” Cargo started to scream and cry like Piccolo had injured him.

Ulitka took advantage and shouted, “Piccolo is trying to take Cargo too! Piccolo has Cargo!” Ulitka shouted it over and over again until there were Nameks surrounding Piccolo.

Piccolo still held Cargo under his arm, dangling off the ground. Cargo started to speak, but Piccolo saw Ulitka sneer and flick his hand. Cargo’s mouth melded shut. Cargo clawed at it trying to get his words out, but he only succeeded in bloodying his face. Every new Namek that arrived saw Ulitka pleading for Piccolo to let Cargo go. They saw Cargo clawing helplessly at his magically altered face, bloody and distressed in Piccolo’s arms.

Piccolo whirled around, but he carefully set Cargo down. He concentrated until Cargo’s mouth reformed, but he used chi to bind Ulitka’s hands to his hips at the same time. Ulitka struggled in mute rage, unable to use his stolen magic that way.

Warriors tried to tackle Piccolo and mages tried to bind him. He rolled his eyes. No one here was a danger to him. He just wanted them to know the truth. He saw Scythe observing Ulitka from the sidelines, his eyes darting from Cargo’s mouth to Ulitka. Without a word, he slammed into Ulitka and started pummeling him. Piccolo kept the bind so Ulitka couldn’t protect himself. It was satisfying.

“What the fuck did you do, you fucking monster!?” Scythe screamed. Piccolo’s heart ached when he saw tears streaming down Scythe’s face.

Ulitka started to speak, but Piccolo sealed his mouth. At the same moment, Cargo spit out the last bloody bits of the skin that Ulitka had formed over his lips. He screeched, “Ulitka absorbed Dende! He merged with Dende against his will and he’s trying to blame Piccolo!”

Scythe’s face morphed into an even blacker shade of rage and he point-blank blasted Ulitka’s face with chi. Piccolo roared, “No! Scythe! No! Dende’s in him! If we want to get him back, we can’t kill Ulitka!”

Scythe froze, his eyes popping wide and he looked down at an unconscious, blackened, bloody Ulitka. He hesitantly touched Ulitka’s pulse-point. Scythe turned to Piccolo, hauling Ulitka up by an arm, and said, “He’s alive. Fuck. Did…did he do that? How?”

Moori arrived just then and tried to make sense of the chaos between Cargo, Piccolo, Ulitka, and Scythe. He glared at Piccolo and his voice shook as he said, “What have you done!? Get off New Na—“

“No, Uncle Moori, no!” Cargo said and burst into tears. He looked terrible with the tatters of extra, magical skin still dangling from under his nose. “Ulitka, oh gods, Ulitka absorbed Dende against his will!”

Moori’s color faded until he looked almost brown. His mouth fell open and he stammered, “No, no, that can’t be. Such a thing is…is…it can’t be done!”

“If…if Dende was…impaired…then a…forceful…person could,” Scythe said, staring in shattered sadness at Ulitka. Scythe dragged Ulitka toward Moori’s house and called a few of his warrior friends and a few mages to follow. Piccolo didn’t really care if he was invited. Dende was his true love, the only man he wanted to mate with and he wasn’t leaving until they’d devised a way to free him from Ulitka’s slimy body and mind. Failing that, Piccolo would murder Ulitka himself.

Scythe tossed Ulitka on the floor of Moori’s house and said to everyone, “Guard him. I’m going to have a word with Piccolo. Moori, figure out how to fucking fix this. If you hadn’t had your godsdamned eugenics plan, this never would have happened. You knew he loved Piccolo. You knew. And your own bigoted ideas about the Demon clan kept you from allowing Dende to have happiness.”

Scythe shoved Piccolo out of the small house and far enough away that there would be no eavesdropping. Piccolo expected Scythe to question him and possibly slap him around a little. Instead Scythe sobbed into his hands, leaving Piccolo to attempt to awkwardly comfort him. Gods, Piccolo was not cut out for all this emotional shit. He patted Scythe. But Scythe leaned into him, so Piccolo hugged the only warrior on Namek that Piccolo respected. He couldn’t tell if that was his own feeling or Nail’s, but Piccolo didn’t care. He respected Nail, so if Nail loved Scythe, Piccolo did too.

Scythe pulled himself together after only a minute or two. He coughed out, “Did he really absorb Dende?”

“I haven’t been able to confirm it, but yeah, I think so. Don’t you get that horrified, screaming feeling from his chi? I think that’s Dende. I think Dende’s still…separate…and trying to get our attention. But Ulitka’s much more dangerous as a warrior-mage, so we—“

“Almost like someone from the Demon clan?” Scythe said, raising an eyebrow.

“You know, fuck you, if you’re going to be like that. I didn’t choose my clan. And he’s not dangerous to _me_ , he’s dangerous to Dende because if he keeps doing what he’s been doing, he’ll get killed, and then Dende will be lost forever.”

“Can’t we just wish Dende separate?” Scythe said hopefully.

“No, not with these dragon balls. We…Nail and I tried. I don’t know about Dende’s dragon balls. We were…united…by the time Dende came to Earth. We tried with Kami’s too, but they didn’t work. I also…fuck! I don’t know if Dende’s dragon balls still exist. Kami’s dragon balls disappeared when I merged with him.”

“Have you considered that you should just stop merging with people, Piccolo?”

“Godsdamnit, Scythe, I didn’t know that Nail could have been resurrected! I thought it was let him die or merge. I didn’t…I didn’t mean to take him from you. He kept you secret, you know. All his other liaisons he enjoyed, um, sharing when we were…more separate. But never you. I think he must have really loved you.”

Scythe looked utterly broken. Piccolo continued, “Did…did you love Dende? I know you two slept together.”

“Gods, that fucker Halzun has never forgiven me for the fact that Nail never…never loved him like he loved me. So when he caught us…he blabbered it all over the village. Dende and I…consoled each other in a weird way. I didn’t want to mate with him, if I’d realized just how awful Ulitka was, I would have, just to save him from _that_ , but…I don’t know. It’s probably fucked, but there’s a spark of Nail in Dende that I couldn’t resist. And I think he just wanted to fuck me because I’d loved Nail. Who knows? Now I’ll never get to ask him. I…You love Dende? Love him well?”

“Yeah, I don’t think he loves me, but I offered to mate with him. He rejected me. I think he thought I was just doing it for him, to save him from Ulitka, but it was completely selfish. I just wanted Dende, and if the only reason he mated with me was to escape that fucking twat, Ulitka, I didn’t mind. I was willing to take whatever Dende would give me,” Piccolo said, and he feared for a moment that he was going to cry in front of Scythe. “Dende told me he was coming back to Earth to at least reconsider, but then he teleported away the minute he’d dropped me off. He was so high that I’m sure Ulitka could have subdued him easily.”

“Take me to Earth. I want to check the dragon balls there. Let’s go.”

“What? I can’t take you, I can’t IT.”

“How the hell did you get here if you can’t IT?”

“Goku. Hold on, let me see if I can get ahold of him.” Piccolo closed his eyes and mentally shouted, _Goku? I need your help!_

Piccolo groaned when it was not Goku who answered, _Godsdamnit, Namek! He’s not your fucking personal spaceship! You have interrupted us for the last—_

Piccolo cut Vegeta’s tirade short, _Dende’s been absorbed by a fucking asshole Namek. We need to see if his dragon balls are still on Earth. If they still work. If they do we’ll bring the piece of shit. So you can either send Goku to come get me, or you guys can go—_

 _Geez, Piccolo, isn’t that what you did to Nail?_ Goku popped in to say.

_No! This was against Dende’s will! Look, what’s it—_

_Don’t you cut me off, you insolent—_

_I’ll cut you off anytime I want, Vegeta, because otherwise you just rant nonstop. Finish fucking Goku and go find the fucking dragon balls, you fucking asshole!_

_You wish you were fucking my asshole!_ Vegeta snarled, obviously unable to come up with anything wittier.

 _No, I wish I could fuck Dende’s asshole so I wouldn’t have to deal with Saiyan sexual bullshit. Will you help?_ Piccolo pleaded.

Both Saiyans were quiet, so Piccolo sighed and rolled his eyes. He said to Scythe. “Sorry. They’re fucking.”

“What?” Scythe asked, looking completely horrified.

“Vegeta and Goku are fucking. They’ll be done in a minute or two and then they’ll either gather the dragon balls or come get us.”

Scythe’s face scrunched up in confusion and he tried to speak, but stopped. They were left in awkward silence. Piccolo knew he should keep his mouth shut, but instead he said, “So…when, um, when we first merged, how come you didn’t…didn’t approach me? He…he would have, you know.”

Scythes eyes bugged out and his lip hitched up and he croaked, “Are you suggesting that I could have fucked your body and had it be Nail?”

Piccolo wished he’d stayed awkwardly silent. “Yes?” Piccolo said, unsure whether he should just shut up now.

Scythe burst into tears again. “Why would you say that _now_? How could I possibly have known? You asshole!”

“I’m…godsdamnit, I’m sorry. I didn’t know about you, or I would have…offered. But I meant it in a nice way. I meant that I wanted him to be happy, okay? And he was. He is. He just settled right in and he’s a part of me. We’re…he’s good with it. After we merged with Kami, Nail was at peace with it. He just…melded into me. We were pretty separate for a few years, but now…now I’m Nail. I know that sounds weird, but I am. I’m sorry that I took that from you.”

“Whatever. Fuck you. Namek culture took that from me before you did. We should have run away.”

“Do you…do you want to mate with Dende? I think he would mate with you,” Piccolo said, though it made him despondent to even suggest.

Before they could discuss it any further, Vegeta shouted in Piccolo’s mind, _He’s on his way, Namek. Something weird happened._


	10. Fracture

Before Goku arrived, Scythe and Piccolo heard a strange, layered scream from Moori’s home. They launched in that direction, and as they stepped into the crowded hut, Goku appeared, his broad shoulders knocking Cargo over.

“Oops! Sorry, Cargo! Hey, Moori! Hey, Piccolo, maybe we should talk outside?” Goku said, scratching the back of his neck. He had a small bag with him. Too small for all the dragon balls.

Another scream erupted out of Ulitka. His eyes were crying, but they were crying blood. It looked awful. Blood drained out his ears too, and Ulitka clawed at his own throat. Piccolo looked at Moori and cried, “What the fuck is happening?”

“I don’t know! He shouted in Dende’s voice and we all held Ulitka’s body down, thinking Dende might be able to un-merge using his own magical power, but then Ulitka shouted words I hadn’t heard since…since your progenitor left. I don’t know what’s happening, but I fear for Dende. After the words, Ulitka’s body has been conflicted. The blood is new. Do you have a plan?”

“I don’t know yet. If Ulitka’s voice speaks again, stuff something in his mouth. His words are poison. I’ll be back in a minute after I strategize with Goku.”

Scythe followed Piccolo and Goku outside. Piccolo said nothing, knowing Scythe maybe had his own reasons for wanting to figure out how to un-merge two Nameks. And that was fine with Piccolo. Nail stirred in him more around Scythe now that Piccolo knew the truth.

“Piccolo, Vegeta’s gonna kill me if you keep using me like a taxi.”

“Someday you should try fucking someone who doesn’t constantly threaten to kill you,” Piccolo said drily.

Goku’s little half-smile made Piccolo laugh despite himself. “Nah, I like how feisty Vegeta is. I like it when he’s all mad.” Goku sighed happily, like Vegeta was Goku’s Prince Charming, which Piccolo supposed wasn’t that far off the mark.

“Yeah, I’ll bet you do, buddy. Thanks for helping out. But maybe I helped you piss him off, huh?”

Goku giggled. He held the bag up and showed Piccolo the disaster inside. There were dragon balls, but they were fractured. Every last one was split in half. Piccolo screeched, “Fuck! What does _that_ mean?”

“How should I know, Piccolo?” Goku said, sounding wounded, “I collected them like you said, but every time I touched one, this freaky noise came out of it, and then it split and look what it did to my hand!” Goku showed his palm, it was blackened, like he’d been badly burned.

“Shit! Did it get worse each time?” Piccolo asked, realizing that was probably irrelevant.

“Kind of, yeah, but it was weird, the first one screamed the longest, then after that they all sounded more…choked. The last one barely made any noise at all,” Goku said.

“Fuck!” Scythe howled.

Piccolo and Goku wheeled toward him. “What, Scythe? Fucking gods, what?” Piccolo asked.

“Ulitka must have realized the Earth dragon balls could un-merge them and he started using magic to break them and Dende fought him, but if the screaming got less…strong…Ulitka’s probably winning against Dende,” Scythe said, clutching his head between his hands.

“Do…do you think we can still wish on them like this?” Piccolo said, looking back and forth between Goku and Scythe.

Scythe said, “We should consult Moori.”

They returned to Moori’s house. Ulitka squirmed, whimpering on the floor, his whole face and neck a bloody mess, his eyes rolled all the way up in his head. One of his antennae was ripped off, laying on the floor beside his head, and the deep claw marks around the wound suggested that he’d done it himself.

Piccolo stared in horror. His love was inside that disaster, struggling, and how much longer could Dende last? Was this struggle a result of being discovered or had some other thing triggered Dende’s sudden desire to fight? Scythe spoke heatedly with Moori, Goku showing Moori his injured hand and the broken orange orbs.

Moori said to the warriors pinning Ulitka, “Do not let him up. I have to do something. Cargo, gather the dragon balls.”

“We know they won’t un-merge—“

“Don’t question me, just do as I say!” Moori snapped.

Moori, Cargo, Goku, Scythe, and Piccolo all stepped back outside. Moori arranged the broken dragon balls on the ground. He called for Shenron and the light in them flared, guttered, and blinked out. Moori held his mouth and said through his fingers, “Dear gods, Dende’s magic is failing him, if it fades completely, they won’t work. I have to believe they can undo this or Ulitka wouldn’t have triggered this battle by cracking them. I think Dende was waiting for us to discover Ulitka’s crime so we could use the dragon balls. Maybe only with the cooperation of the merged parties can they be separated?”

Cargo returned after what felt like an eternity, the larger Namekian dragon balls floating in front of him. Moori summoned Porunga and said, “Can you repair Dende’s Earth dragon balls, Porunga?”

Porunga’s booming voice said, “What is happening to Dende? His soul feels torn asunder, like another is trying to…steal…it. The dragon balls cannot function without his soul being complete.”

“He has been unwillingly fused. Can you repair them before his soul is ruined?” Moori said and Piccolo was shocked to see tears in the elder’s eyes.

Porunga’s eyes glowed red and the smaller dragon balls fused back together, but Piccolo could see the scar where they had been split. It marred them like a vein of unholy ore. Piccolo summoned Shenron immediately. Shenron flickered, like he was dropping in and out of existence. Piccolo said, “Please un-merge Dende’s body and soul from Ulitka, give him his self back.”

Shenron faded and Piccolo heard screaming, his own screaming, but then the slender dragon reappeared, more solid and his eyes glowed deep, blood red. He boomed, “It is unnatural, what has happened to my creator. It may be beyond my power, but I will try.”

The ground shook beneath their feet and the screaming in Moori’s house became an awful, hollow sound, like what Piccolo imagined one would hear in the center of a terrible storm. The windows shattered on his house and a strange, blackish purple smoke streamed outward. Piccolo watched as the small dragon balls cracked, hairlines running in all directions through them, but they didn’t shatter.

Shenron and Porunga both disappeared at the same moment, the sky lightened, and the world was so still that Piccolo almost fell down after balancing on the shaking earth. Everyone stood in stunned silence for a minute. Piccolo was the first to move as he flew through one of the broken windows to see what had happened on the floor of Moori’s home.

Piccolo sobbed and dropped to his knees next to the wasted, naked, muddy green body of his love. Dende’s limp, bony form laid on the floor in a heap. Ulitka’s lower jaw was stuck in his shoulder, torn tendons dangling down Dende’s back.

Piccolo’s eyes followed the blood trail back to the shattered remains of Ulitka’s face and neck. It appeared that Shenron had torn Dende out of Ulitka’s mouth. A wary Namek whose name Piccolo didn’t know knelt and touched Ulitka’s wrist. He met Piccolo’s eyes and said, “He…he’s alive.”

“Not for long he isn’t,” Piccolo said and took Ulitka by the foot and dragged him out of the house. He flung Ulitka in the air and blasted him. At the last moment, Ulitka’s eyes opened wide. Piccolo roared, “Die, motherfucker!”

Scythe, Goku, Moori, and Cargo stared at Piccolo in horror. He didn’t care. He barked, “Are you useful enough to have a fucking senzu bean, Goku?”

Goku’s eyes scrunched up and he said, “No! Don’t be a jerk! I’ll go see if Korin has any.” Goku disappeared.

Piccolo sprinted back into the hut and picked Dende up gently. He plucked the revolting remains of Ultika out of his arm. He stomped the jaw until it was just a purple, slimy mess on the floor. Piccolo kissed Dende’s forehead and whispered, “Don’t do this, you little asshole. You fought so long. Don’t give up now.”

But Dende didn’t respond. He was cool in Piccolo’s arms, but he was breathing, his pulse steady. Goku reappeared and said, “He didn’t have any. Don’t any of the Nameks having healing magic like Dende?”

Cargo stood near Piccolo, his face streaked with tears. Piccolo snapped, “Heal him!” He shifted so Cargo could reach Dende’s withered chest, every rib visible.

Scythe sobbed, staring at Dende, and then his eyes came up to Piccolo, fiery and hateful as he bit out, “Is…is this what Nail is like?”

Piccolo shook his head. He said, “Come here,” jerking his chin up to get Scythe beside him. When Scythe was close, Piccolo closed his eyes and concentrated. He and Scythe’s antennae touched and Piccolo blacked out. He existed, but not consciously. Nail took the reins and interacted with Scythe directly.

Piccolo returned to his body with a hot mouth on his own, a hand behind his neck, tugging at him. Piccolo’s eyes opened and he saw Scythe kissing him. Piccolo let Scythe finish and pulled away gently. Scythe’s eyes slid open and looked into Piccolo’s. He searched Piccolo’s eyes and whispered, “Thank you. He’s okay. But it’s…it’s not possible, anymore, is it?”

“No, I’m really sorry, Scythe. We…we tried. I think he held on so long for you, but it was never like this. Never…forced. Never cruel. We have a good time.”

Piccolo returned his attention to Dende. Cargo collapsed and said, “I don’t understand, it’s not helping.”

Moori stared and said, “He’s not…injured…in the way you heal, Cargo.” Moori’s face was a sickly shade of green.

Piccolo shouldered everyone out of his way to get outdoors. He said, “Take us back to Earth, Goku. Please.”

“Piccolo!” Scythe shouted.

“What?”

“Can I go?” Scythe said, his eyes desperate.

“I can't...be that for you, Scythe. I love Dende.”

Scythe dropped to his knees and cried into his hands. Piccolo said, “I’ll come back once Dende’s well, okay? You can see if he’ll surface for you again.”

Scythe nodded and fled. Goku said, “So…we good to go? Nameks are weird, Piccolo.”

“So are Saiyans. Let’s go.”

Minutes later, Piccolo sat on the floor of Dende’s shower, carefully washing the insensible man he loved more than anyone in the universe. Dende didn’t stir through his bathing, or when Piccolo dressed him in sweats and a t-shirt. When Piccolo finally set him down in the center of his big bed, Dende sighed audibly, but his eyes remained stubbornly closed.

Piccolo reached out to Mr. Popo telepathically and the little genie brought some broth. Piccolo propped Dende up on pillows. It took hours to feed him, but the broth stayed down, and it gave Piccolo hope that Dende was able to swallow. Dende’s face also looked less strained after he was cleaned and fed. Piccolo cupped Dende’s sallow, hollow cheek in his big hand and whispered, “You better come back, Dende. You can’t leave me after showing me I was right to love you. Now I’m even more certain that I want you as my mate. Come back to me, please, little god, come back.”

Piccolo figured it was wishful thinking, but he was certain that Dende pressed his face into Piccolo’s hand. Dende’s color improved. Piccolo tucked Dende in, made sure he was slightly upright in case he threw up, and Piccolo curled up on the bed beside him. Exhaustion took Piccolo and he let it: he was eager to pass the time.


	11. Emerging from Merging

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: rape/physical & emotional abuse

It was hard, day after day, to keep up hope. Piccolo knew Dende was doing better. He’d put on weight and he was able to eat if Piccolo fed him, but his eyes stayed closed. Nothing but food, water, and sighs passed his lips. Piccolo knew his mind was working because he did occasionally scream and thrash. Piccolo’s voice always soothed him though, so he took it as a good sign, even if it meant poor Dende was suffering.

Piccolo appreciated after the first several days when Mr. Popo offered to sit with Dende for a few hours so Piccolo could go train without worrying. Piccolo was about to crawl out of his skin he was so stressed out and scared. Even though Piccolo previously meditated for hours on end, he found himself unable to do so while watching over Dende, though he tried daily.

Over a month had passed when Piccolo awoke to something trailing along his cheekbone. He sat up with a start and Dende’s squinty, barely open eyes met his.

“Dende!” Piccolo used every bit of his energy to hold back from crushing Dende in a fierce hug. Piccolo settled for clutching Dende’s hand in his.

“Hello, my demon,” Dende said in a voice that sounded rusty and strained. A soft smile spread on his face. “You found me.”

Piccolo laughed, crying at the same time, and said, “Could have saved us both a lot of trouble if you’d just stayed with me, you know?” Piccolo hurried to wipe away his tears.

Dende chuffed out a little chuckle and his eyes slid closed. “Yes. I did not intend to hide,” Dende said.

Piccolo got some water and helped Dende take a drink. Piccolo didn’t want to say anything, for fear he fully broke down into blubbering. Dende took several long breaths and said, “I’m sorry.”

“What? No, don’t…fuck…Dende, I’m just so glad I could…free you…from him. Don’t apologize. Do you…do you…want to, um, talk about it?”

Dende rolled his head and scrutinized Piccolo. “No. Not just yet. How long?”

“A year in him. A month here,” Piccolo said.

“Fuck,” Dende breathed, “It felt like a lifetime.”

“Yeah, I can’t even imagine,” Piccolo said.

Dende took another long breath and said, “What happened to him when you…retrieved…me?”

“Um…I…Are…are you sure you want to talk about it right now?”

“Given the mess that was in his mind, I can’t imagine he came through it well having me ripped out. What did Moori say? I assume he’s upset that his dream bloodline plans are rather unlikely at this point.”

“Do…you don’t remember?” Piccolo asked, surprised that Dende didn’t have some sense of erupting out of Ulitka.

Dende shook his head. “I remember battling him when he discovered the utility of my dragon balls, but I was so weak by then that I assumed he succeeded in their destruction. Did you pull me out with your magic?”

“I don’t have that sort of magic. We used Namek’s dragon balls to fix yours enough to wish you free.”

“I’m surprised Moori let you. Probably Ulitka doing…what he did…was Moori’s idea. Gods,” Dende said with venom.

“No, Dende, he was heartbroken and shocked. Do you…You want to just show me, Dende? You might feel a little better if you don’t have to bear it by yourself,” Piccolo said and laced his fingers with Dende’s.

Another rueful laugh escaped Dende and he cranked his head back to look up at the ceiling. He said, “No, I wouldn’t wish _that_ knowledge on my worst enemy, so—“

“No, of course not, because you don’t show your wounds to your enemies. But…what about to someone who loves you?” Piccolo said, feeling foolish, but he wasn’t willing to hide his feelings. If Dende didn’t reciprocate, Piccolo would back off, but he wanted Dende to understand. None of this would have happened if Dende had understood that it was never about obligation or helping for Piccolo. For Piccolo, it had all been for love.

Dende didn’t look at Piccolo as he said, “Don’t be ridiculous, Piccolo. You don’t need to do this. I certainly won’t be mating with Ulitka now, so you don’t have to throw your life away to save me from him.”

Piccolo touched Dende’s jaw, tipping his face to look at Piccolo. “Stop being a fucking idiot. I love you. Stop pretending it’s something else. If you don’t love me back, that’s fine, I’ll fuck off, but…stop trying to put it on me.”

Dende grasped the nape of Piccolo’s neck and leaned weakly forward. Piccolo met him so he didn’t tip over. Dende’s mouth on Piccolo’s was surprisingly strong and demanding, despite how long he’d been trapped in Ulitka and out of it on Earth. His tongue raced along the edge of Piccolo’s fangs and he panted against Piccolo’s mouth and tried to shift himself.

Piccolo helped Dende move until he straddled Piccolo’s lap and Piccolo could wrap his arms around Dende’s weakened, skinny body. It hurt Piccolo’s heart to feel how fragile Dende was thanks to that psychopath. Dende eased out of the kiss and caressed Piccolo’s cheek. He stared into Piccolo’s eyes and said, “I believe you’re the idiot, between the two of us, if you mean it.”

“That I love you?” Piccolo said.

“Yes, that. But if you want me to show you, I will. I…I don’t want to talk about what happened, Piccolo. But…it…I…I think you should know,” Dende said, avoiding Piccolo’s eyes and closing his own tightly, “You should know what you’re getting into.”

Before Piccolo could answer, Dende’s antennae touched his and Piccolo understood how gentle Dende’s previous _peluwsa_ had been. Piccolo plunged into Dende’s mind so deeply it was hard to hang onto himself, his own mind. The first thing he saw was himself, but not his internalized version of himself. Dende’s version of him.

* * *

_Piccolo is so tall, like a mountain above him, but that uncertain, shy smile that shows his fangs on one side takes any menace out of his imposing form. The parallel, angular sweep of Piccolo’s jaw and cheekbone are so sexy that it makes Dende ache to leave such handsome kindness behind. He knows it’s for the best that he goes, but he wants Piccolo anyway. He wants to take the ajisa-high fool at his word and pair-bond right here on the floor of the Lookout. But there is family. There is duty. There is not wanting to take a real life from Piccolo, who can’t love Dende, because he doesn’t_ know _Dende._

_A drawn out goodbye will undo his resolve, so he makes it quick, abrupt, even, and he is gone with a last thirsty look at that tall, deliciously muscular body. Ulitka will do if Dende can remember that sight for the rest of his life. Perhaps Ulitka will back out now that he has seen Dende “sullied” and then Dende could retreat in disgrace from his obligations on New Namek. Obligations that Moori says he has neglected too long already._

_Dende expects them to go speak with Moori to make the necessary arrangement for a formal ceremony. It takes him by surprise when Ulitka sends the other warriors away, but Dende assumes they only came to help Ulitka subdue Piccolo. Dende snorts that Ulitka thinks he and few Namek warriors could subdue Piccolo._

_Dende’s amusement quickly turns to concern as Ulitka turns on him once they are alone. Ulitka wrenches Dende’s arms up behind him at such an angle that Dende knows his shoulders will unmoor if he doesn’t cooperate._

_“Fly, you scrawny fucking slut,” Ulitka hisses in his ear and Dende obeys. The first stirrings of real, tangy fear fill his mouth. He wishes now that he’d brought Piccolo with him. It never occurred to him that Ulitka would hurt him like this. Once they were mated, yes, but not like this. He thought Ulitka was loyal to Moori and tradition. This, what he can feel Ulitka is intending, is_ not _tradition._

_Ulitka guides them down in a deserted grove of ajisa trees. Ulitka shoves Dende’s face against the smooth bark of the ajisa and despite wanting to be brave, tears slip out of Dende’s eyes. The horror of what is about to happen to him is overshadowed by the fact that he will never have it with Piccolo. The error of his choice hits him in the belly like a gut punch and he sobs._

_“Shut up. Don’t pretend you won’t take it from anything that moves,” Ulitka snarls, fumbling at his own tight ajisa harvest uniform. “Spread your legs or I’ll do it for you.”_

_Dende decides if he’s going to be violated, he won’t participate. He remains motionless and Ulitka yanks his arm up. The sickening pop from Dende’s shoulder makes him cry harder, but not from pain. It is more like a warning bell for the brutality of what is to come. Ulitka doesn’t care about Dende’s physical wellbeing at all, and never has, so it will be worse than Dende had imagined, even in his darkest hours. The pain Ulitka caused him when they had anal sex, Dende thought was a result of carelessness and inexperience, but now Dende sees that it was something else entirely._

* * *

Piccolo was rushed through a blur, unable to see what actually happened, but Dende’s mind can’t stay there, even for the time the act took. Tears broke free from Piccolo's eyes at the knowledge of what the man he loves suffered because of Ulitka.

* * *

_Broken, torn, and so, so, so unwhole, Dende sobs in a ball on the ground. Ulitka is a biter, and not in a pleasant, Namek way, but in a vicious, cruel, sadistic way. Dende has multiple severe wounds. He tries to accept a lifetime of what he just endured and he realizes that suicide is preferable. A part of his mind whispers that if he goes to Piccolo now, Piccolo will save him. Piccolo would kill Ulitka just for the shoulder injury, but the other…Piccolo would draw out Ulitka’s death for the other, deeper, harder-to-heal wounds._

_But Dende is in such a thick cocoon of shame and self-loathing and revulsion, that Dende can’t do it. He thinks about how blithely he abandoned Piccolo, without even a goodbye kiss. How could Dende ever ask anything of that man who he hurt for this very thing? Dende is too weak to IT at that moment anyway. He would have to bide his time until Ulitka let him regain his strength. Dende wishes that there had been senzu to bring with him. Not that he envisioned anything this terrible. Nothing near this ever crossed his mind._

_Ulitka might be a weakling compared to Piccolo, but he is orders of magnitude stronger than Dende and powered by malice and sadism. He lifts Dende up by his throat and savages his mouth when Dende tries to keep his closed._

_Ulitka hisses, “Shut up and quit your blubbering. That was better than a mage deserves, especially a little whore like you, you filthy bitch. You displeased me enough with our original coupling, with all your whining and complaining, but then to see you moaning like a slut for that…that…that abomination of Namek. It made me realize you would never do your duty to me. Moori’s plans are all foolish anyway. But I know why that tall bastard is so powerful, and I realized I could have that too, especially if you aren’t going to cooperate as a mate. Gods, you just never shut up, do you?” Ulitka squeezes tighter on Dende’s throat._

* * *

Piccolo was shuttled past something that happened in another blur of horror. He saw enough fragments to understand. Piccolo tried to maintain some composure so Dende knows it’s okay to tell Piccolo anything. To share anything, if it will help him move past it. But Piccolo was heartbroken for Dende.

* * *

_The pain in Dende’s body is shocking. Not even death felt anywhere near this terrible. Ulitka has taken Dende somewhere he doesn’t recognize. Ulitka stuffs more ajisa in his mouth, covering Dende’s torn, bloody lips with his strong hand until Dende reluctantly swallows. Dende was already very, very high, but he is approaching insensible. He can no longer speak, even if his lips were intact. Even if his tongue weren’t swollen from misuse._

_Dende is misused more thoroughly in the new place, and he is grateful for being so high for that part, at least. Dende is barely conscious for most of what Ulitka does in the unknown place. Dende doesn’t know how much time passes, but he feels near to death. He wishes for it when it becomes apparent that Ulitka intends to just keep doing what he’s been doing. It was not a singular punishment for Dende’s transgression with Piccolo, it is just how Ulitka likes things. Dende wonders suddenly about a young mage who went missing the year before. They never found Saw_ , _he was just gone and everyone assumed he went off-world with one of the traders that came to the ever-growing cities on New Namek. But now a memory of Ulitka and Saw speaking rises in Dende’s mind. He wonders if Ulitka just kept Saw somewhere until he was used up._

_Another mouthful of ajisa and Dende is uncertain whether he can muster the coordination to swallow. Death by ajisa asphyxiation seems preferable to anything Ulitka has in mind, but when Dende begins to choke, Ulitka claws the fruit out of Dende’s throat. Ulitka says, “Perfect. Too far gone to make a fuss. Too bad I can’t eat my cake and fuck it too,” with an ominous little snort of laughter._

_Dende realizes what is happening too late, not that it would matter. Dende wouldn’t be able to overpower Ulitka sober, but certainly not incapacitated as he is, inebriated beyond even the ability to protest. Ulitka forces himself on Dende while he does it, and Dende feels his soul violated as his body is violated, but then his body is gone._

_Ulitka’s mind is a terrible place to exist, and his body is no better. Ulitka’s body is greedy. Merging was so ill-understood and so taboo, that Dende didn’t know that the host body has control over the merged soul’s sensations. That the merged soul needs nourishment, not like an actual body, but some. It needs water and care. It can be abused. It can be used. Dende felt some relief in his final moments of having his physical body that he would at least be spared further physical suffering once Ulitka consumed him._

_But he is wrong. Perhaps it’s because Dende won’t let go. Dende won’t let Ulitka’s mind have him. Ulitka expends enormous energy to pull Dende’s magic out of him, trying to make Dende’s magic a part of himself, not something he has to steal each time, but once Dende is sober, Ulitka can’t take and take without a fight. And Dende does fight, because inside Ulitka now, he sees what Ulitka dreams of for the future of Namekians. He dreams of a race of servile mages, bent to the will of warriors bolstered by merging with other mages. He dreams of being an overlord, like Frieza, one who can take and take and take. Ulitka would never give anything if he has his way._

_Dende fights him with everything Dende has. Dende tries to make his chi flare, hoping that someone, anyone, will sense what Ulitka has done. Ulitka lies so easily, mourns so pitifully that “Piccolo murdered his sweet betrothed,” that no one questions him. No one but Scythe. Others question what is wrong with Ulitka. They almost hear Dende screaming sometimes, but Ulitka is brutal, inside and out, and Dende, even trapped as he is, is not immune to physical pain. Ulitka beats him mercilessly, and other things far worse, most days._

_Dende deliberately does not track the time. He can’t bear to know how much of his life Ulitka is stealing. But Dende never truly despairs, because even though he knows his chi is absent from the mortal plane, he can still sense chi much more keenly than Ulitka is able. And far away, Dende feels Piccolo’s chi. Piccolo’s chi searches for Dende’s. Day in and day out, Piccolo searches. Dende wonders if Piccolo will ever stop searching for him. Dende wonders how to get Piccolo’s attention. But Dende comes up empty, and thinking too long on Piccolo results in terrible, terrible things. Dende can only endure so much before he turns his mind away from the tall, beautiful hope that Dende dares to cling to even in his darkest hours._

_Dende begins to fade though. Ulitka has discovered that if he truly starves Dende, it is easier for him to steal and wield Dende’s magic. So far he has only used it for evil. Dende is certain that won’t change, but it makes Dende feel filthier than he already does, this misuse of his magic, on top of Ulitka’s misuse of every single other part of Dende._

_Dende is falling apart. As his body fails, his mind follows. It’s hard to keep his mind together when his body is so bent on nothing more than survival. Ulitka’s mind presses Dende to release his hold on himself and_ become _Ulitka. Dende wishes that his body inside Ulitka’s could vomit at the thought. Dende is so, so, so tired. Even Ulitka’s subconscious picks at Dende, never letting him rest, and the hunger and thirst are so constant, the battle for every nutrient and molecule so exhausting, that sleep is what Dende hungers for most of all._

_Dende can no longer remember Piccolo’s face, or the smell of fresh air, or the taste of clean water, when he sees through Ulitka’s small, evil eyes, that Piccolo has come to New Namek. Dende doesn’t know how or why Piccolo has returned, but Dende screams with everything that is left of himself. He screams until Ulitka beats him down._

_The moment he rises back to consciousness, or the closest thing he has to consciousness anymore, he senses what Ulitka is doing. Dende fights viciously, then, going on the offensive against Ulitka’s mind and ravaging what he can reach, tearing apart any unguarded corner of Ulitka, and if it turns Ulitka into a gibbering moron, so much the better for the world. Ulitka rarely leaves himself so unguarded, so this is Dende’s one chance to really wreck his captor, but Ulitka’s malice, with Dende's magic, is bent on destroying Dende’s dragon balls. Ulitka, after subduing Dende earlier, found his most inner secret: that the dragon balls could set Dende free. That all of Dende’s spare energy has gone to preserving them._

_Lately Dende has known that they were barely holding up. What little magic he still maintains control of is weakened by Dende’s general disrepair, both mental and physical. But now, now that Piccolo is here and Piccolo has discovered the truth, Dende will fight until he dies, because he would rather die and take Ulitka with him, than live and wonder if he’d fought just a little harder, if he might have gotten back to himself somehow._

_As Goku finds the dragon balls and Dende rends parts of Ulitka’s psyche apart to distract him, Ulitka gets a good hold on what remains of Dende’s self. Ulitka is more powerful, more mindless, more determined than ever. Ulitka is certain that he can choke the magic out of the shred of Dende that is left inside him, and then Dende will be disposable. Dende will die, what little of Dende there is left._

_Suddenly, Shenron’s powerful talons are inside Ulitka, cradling Dende, extracting him, and at last, after so long, Dende takes a real breath of his own air in his own lungs after it passes through his own nose. Dende can’t move or speak, he can barely do this simple thing—breathing. But breathing feels so wonderful. Nothing has ever felt so wonderful as breathing with his own body, wasted and abused though it is. It is_ his _body, and his soul and mind hum with pleasure that they are no longer in the sticky, fetid tar of Ulitka’s psyche. It is delicious to be wholly himself again, not constantly being pulled apart and unwoven._

_Breathing improves even more when Dende smells Piccolo. Feels Piccolo’s touch on his face. Hears Piccolo’s deep, sexy voice call him an asshole. Everything improves now that Piccolo is there, holding Dende and keeping him safe. Dende wishes he had the strength to smile, or do anything besides exist. He doesn’t, though. He goes to sleep without fear for the first time since leaving Piccolo on Earth._

_Dende rises to consciousness sometimes, and whenever he does, he hears Piccolo teasing him, berating him, loving him. Piccolo talks to him constantly, but Dende is still so, so tired. He sleeps mostly, but the energy to speak or move or do anything eludes him. Piccolo cares for him. Piccolo nurses him back to health. After enduring Ulitka, it is strange to be so completely at someone’s mercy and never fear them. Piccolo manages Dende’s body with the utmost respect, almost professionalism, and it startles Dende that one so powerful and brutal, can be so tender, so gentle, and so nurturing. Dende imagines Piccolo holding a tiny, newborn baby, and thinks that nowhere in the universe is safer, or more dangerous, than being in Piccolo’s hands._

_Dende wakes up and finally has the strength to open his eyes. He can feel his vocal cords are able to move again. He can even move his hand. He finally feels like he commands his body again. Like he can do more than breathe and sleep._

_Dende’s eyelids are heavy, but he wills them to stay up for a moment so he can enjoy this view of Piccolo for a moment. Piccolo’s face is unguarded and relaxed. Piccolo is curled near Dende, but there is nothing…greedy…about it. Piccolo’s sleeping posture, even, seems to protect Dende. It is clear that he sleeps in such a way that if Dende tips or vomits, Piccolo can help him quickly._

_Dende touches Piccolo’s smooth beautiful cheek and meets the dark, intense eyes, and he is sure then. He is sure that he’s in love with the man who saved him. The man he has watched and considered and misunderstood for years. Dende wants the man who springs to attention with joy when he sees Dende, a husk of a man, manage to open his eyes. Dende doesn’t know how to let go of all that has happened to him, all that he brought on himself with his inability to see what Ulitka was, but he thinks maybe, if the tall, exquisitely handsome man who has cared for him tirelessly in his recovery from Ulitka can love Dende still, maybe Dende can find a way to live with himself again._


	12. Life After Ulitka

Piccolo felt the turn of Dende’s mind, felt him embrace Piccolo as the man he loved, and he felt Dende’s will to move past all that had happened to him. As Dende let him go and their antennae untwined, Piccolo looked deep into Dende’s dark, tired eyes and kissed him softly. There was no demand in the kiss, no need for anything more than the gentle touch of Piccolo’s lips to Dende’s. Dende had had so little gentle touch.

Piccolo caressed Dende’s cheek and said, “You hungry? Mr. Popo will be by in a few minutes with some food.”

“I am, actually. I’m ravenous,” Dende said and Piccolo’s insides stirred at the way Dende looked at him. Dende’s eyes drank Piccolo in and he didn’t know what to do or say. Piccolo only wanted Dende to recover and be healthy, but there was no rush. Piccolo was in for the long haul.

Piccolo held Dende’s hand and said, “I’m sorry I didn’t come look for you sooner. I…I assumed you didn’t want anything more to do with me.”

“Don’t apologize, Piccolo. I made my own trouble. I couldn’t…I never…Nothing like what Ulitka did ever crossed my mind as a possibility. I thought when I came back if he was unpleasant, that I would simply return to you. But…well…that didn’t work out. I’m glad you found me at all. You were all that kept me fighting, you know. Knowing that you were looking for me, searching, it gave me the hope I needed to survive.”

“I guess that’s better than nothing. I wish I’d found you sooner. I wish…I wish I had been more clear about my love for you so you never would have gone back in the first place,” Piccolo said, and his eyes filled.

“No, my demon. No. I…I believe Ulitka would have found another victim. I found the memory of what he did to Saw. He killed him in his attempt to merge against Saw’s will. At least I was stubborn enough to hold on and now Ulitka can’t hurt anyone else. If I hadn’t gone back, Cargo might have suffered more than I did. He might never have been saved and Ulitka might have gradually grown more and more powerful as he consumed mages. I don’t know. But I do know that I’m grateful you never gave up on finding me.”

Piccolo couldn’t help his shit-eating grin and he said, “Well…I am pretty hopelessly in love with you, Dende.”

Dende laughed, his throat tight and tired from a lack of use. He said, “Oh, Piccolo, you’re a fool, but a sweet fool. I believe I am hopelessly in love with you as well.”

* * *

Piccolo’s mood soared as Dende grew stronger and less emaciated every day now that he was awake. After only a few days of consciousness, Piccolo started helping him move and walk and even begin to wield his magic again. Ulitka had sapped so much of it, that it was like an atrophied muscle too. Day by day, though, Dende improved.

Piccolo never pushed for anything more than Dende speaking to him. But occasionally he could sense Dende’s need for kind, gentle, physical contact—something to fight the awful memories of the way Ulitka had used him and hurt him. Piccolo held his hands in the evenings sometimes while they sat together reading. Piccolo slept in Dende’s bed still, but let Dende initiate any touch. The one exception was when Dende had nightmares and would scream himself hoarse in his sleep. Piccolo touched him then, sometimes sharing _peluwsa_ to bring him back to himself and away from whatever horror had risen from his memory.

It took three months before Dende had the strength and the stamina to return to his duties as the Guardian of Earth, and Piccolo insisted on a slow reentry into that role. Dende came back to himself some as he resumed having power and agency over more than his own body. Piccolo stayed in the periphery, always willing to help if it proved too much for Dende’s still fragile health.

Piccolo noticed as Dende’s confidence and strength returned that he touched Piccolo more. Sometimes it was as simple as grazing his fingers down Piccolo’s arm, but other times, it was more forward. Dende had taken to lacing his fingers with Piccolo’s on their way to bed in the evenings. Once in a while when Piccolo meditated, Dende would pull him out of it by wrapping around Piccolo from behind, pressing the faintest kiss on the turn of Piccolo’s jaw where it peeked out from his cape.

As Dende’s first year of recovery came to a close, Piccolo was getting ready for bed when Dende encircled Piccolo’s waist with his arms. Even though Dende sometimes did that while he meditated, he had never done this. Never touched Piccolo’s bare skin, since he was shirtless, wearing only loose pants, and brushing his teeth. Dende never touched Piccolo when they were so close to laying in bed together. Piccolo ran his free hand over the top of one of Dende’s, lacing their fingers together. The last few weeks Dende sometimes held Piccolo’s hand in bed. Once he pressed it to his chest while he slept, but whether it was a conscious choice or happenstance while he slept, Piccolo didn’t know.

Dende’s hot mouth began making its way across Piccolo’s back. His open mouth. Sucking. Kissing. Biting. That was definitely new. Definitely more forward. Piccolo finished brushing his teeth and trailed his claws along Dende’s other arm.

Dende hummed happily and his hands, with Piccolo’s over top of his smaller ones drifted lower. Piccolo’s breathing sped up. He would follow Dende’s lead wherever it went, never wanting to force anything on the man he loved, who had suffered so much force already, but he also didn’t want to seem disinterested. He glanced over his shoulder and Dende gave him a little smirk.

Piccolo grinned down at him and said, “You must not like these pants if you’re trying to push them off.”

“Mmm…they are intrusive pants. I would like them to go away,” Dende said playfully and nipped at Piccolo’s back.

Dende’s nimble fingers undid the drawstring and Piccolo shimmied his hips so they fell. He wore boxer-briefs, not because he wanted to, but because he never wanted Dende to feel uncomfortable when Piccolo slept near him. Dende’s fingers snuck inside the waistband and slid around to the sides, pushing them lower on Piccolo's hips, but not off. Piccolo was getting hard, and he was torn between making sure Dende felt safe, and making sure Dende felt wanted.

Dende pulled his fingers back out of the top edge of the boxers. Piccolo assumed that Dende wasn’t ready for anything that sexual, so he withdrew. Piccolo closed his eyes and took a deep calming breath to subdue his now very full erection when a small hand palmed it through his boxers. Piccolo gasped and Dende purred, “My demon…” but said nothing else as his mouth continued to move over Piccolo’s skin.

Dende’s hand moved up and down the length of Piccolo’s shaft. Piccolo panted. He hadn’t been touched since the ajisa festival almost two years earlier. Piccolo wasn’t sure how he should proceed. Piccolo turned in Dende’s arms, and Dende let him. Dende’s hands settled on Piccolo’s ass. Dende kept his face down, but Piccolo touched his chin, gently turning his face up.

Dende’s eyes sparkled, though he looked nervous too. Piccolo leaned down slowly, giving Dende plenty of time to stop him, and kissed Dende’s mouth. A real kiss. They had shared chaste kisses, and Namek kisses with their antennae, but nothing overtly sexual. Piccolo took Dende’s lower lip between his lips and Dende’s mouth opened to him. Dende’s tongue dipped tentatively into Piccolo’s mouth. Piccolo imitated Dende, letting Dende guide him as much as possible. Piccolo wrapped his arm beneath Dende’s ass and hoisted him up so it was easier to kiss with their height difference.

Dende clutched Piccolo’s face between his hands and the kiss turned frantic and passionate and needy. Dende’s tongue plundered Piccolo’s mouth and he moaned and rocked his hips against Piccolo’s hard body. Dende’s fast hardening cock pressed against Piccolo’s stomach. Piccolo groaned too and murmured, “Gods it feels good to kiss you.”

“Likewise, my demon,” Dende whispered and took Piccolo’s mouth with his own again, canting his head to the side to deepen the kiss further. His legs spread wide and wrapped around Piccolo’s body, allowing Dende to grind against him more.

“Let’s get in bed, Piccolo,” Dende gasped against Piccolo’s lips.

Piccolo carried him into the bedroom and scooted onto the bed, laying back so Dende was on top of him. He hoped that would be less scary for Dende than being beneath Piccolo. Dende immediately shifted so his crotch drove against Piccolo’s. “Dende…” Piccolo breathed, curling up to be able to kiss him as they frotted for the first time since the ajisa vat. It was strange to Piccolo, who felt so connected to Dende in every way, but especially sexually, that he and Dende had never done anything in a bed.

Dende reached down and shoved at Piccolo’s boxers. Piccolo lifted his hips, eliciting a hungry growl from Dende, and his cock popped free of the cloth. Dende stripped off his own shorts and they were naked together. Dende hesitated only a moment before sliding his prick against Piccolo’s holding them together with his small hand. Piccolo made lube pour out of his palm and wrapped his hand around the other side of their dicks, hoping it would feel okay for Dende, but listening telepathically for the slightest mutterings of fear.

Fear was not what he found as he brushed his antennae over Dende’s. Aching, panting, sweaty lust filled Dende’s mind. He hungered for Piccolo to touch him. Piccolo let the fire of his own want ripple up into Dende’s mind, hoping it eased the nagging concern around the edges of Dende’s thoughts that Piccolo might not want him as he was. Piccolo wanted Dende, wounds and all. He always had. He opened his mind entirely to Dende, bared his soul, and hoped Dende would be able to relax and enjoy himself, to guide Piccolo. Piccolo wanted to Dende to know how much he wanted Dende to be in charge, to go only as far as he was comfortable. Piccolo wanted Dende forever, and there was no rush to anything. Ever. Piccolo hoped Dende would feel how happy he made Piccolo, even without sex.

Dende murmured, “I don’t deserve you, my demon.”

“Yeah, you do. I hope I can be worthy of you, Dende. I love you so much. I just want to make you happy. To take care of you. I want…I want it to feel good again,” Piccolo said and he ran his free hand along Dende’s side.

Dende growled and kissed down Piccolo’s jaw and neck. Their hips bucked together, the lube making their cocks slide, allowing mind-addling friction and Piccolo realized if he didn’t ease up, he was going to come all over them both. He loosened his grip on their pricks, but Dende hissed, “No…I’m so close…please…”

Those throaty words pushed Piccolo over the edge and he moaned into Dende’s mouth as cum spilled out of him onto his belly, smearing on Dende’s cock. Dende gasped, “Oh, fuck, oh gods, Piccolo…I…Oh…Piccolo…Piccolo…Piccolo!”

Dende’s seed splattered up Piccolo’s chest and he tensed his abs to be able to touch Dende’s antennae. The _peluwsa_ was intense and bright and…happy. Piccolo feared, even as he came, that something would trigger Dende, but Dende’s mind was all delight and pleasure. Piccolo purred, “I love you. I love you so much, Dende.”

“I know, my demon. I love you too. Thank you…I…I needed that,” Dende breathed.

Piccolo kissed Dende more, feeling less anxious now that this bridge had been crossed without upsetting his little mate. He grinned against Dende’s lips and said, “Yeah, me too. It feels so good to touch you, baby.”

Dende smiled back and caressed Piccolo’s face with his hand that wasn’t covered in cum. Dende said, “Mmm…indeed. You know what I would love to do, Piccolo?”

“Go to sleep?” Piccolo said.

Dende giggled and said, “Eventually, yes. But, what I would like to do right now, this very moment, is have a celebratory growler of _ranuelett_ because I’m alive and I’m with you and I’m happy. Then I would very much like to fuck you.”

Piccolo’s eyebrows shot up and he couldn’t help the big, dumb fanged grin that spread on his face. He nodded as he said, “Yeah, that sounds fucking great. I want that too. But maybe I’ll get us a towel first, huh?”

Dende shoved Piccolo playfully back on the bed and said, “No, my demon, _I’ll_ get us a towel. You’ve done quite a lot of care-taking and I would like to take care of you, for once.”

Piccolo watched Dende walk to the bathroom, admiring his taut little ass. Dende returned with a towel, but then went to the kitchen to retrieve one of the growlers of ajisa from before Ulitka stole Dende from Piccolo.

Piccolo said, “You sure you want to get high? You can fuck me without getting me stoned, Dende.” Piccolo smirked and spread himself wide on the bed.

Dende crawled between Piccolo’s legs, kissed up his belly, and set the growler down. He looked in Piccolo’s eyes and said, “I want to feel it and feel safe. I want to know I’m safe when I’m…pliable. I trust you. I know you’ll take care of me. He…” Dende stopped. Dende never spoke about Ulitka. Sometimes he shared thoughts about the horror of his captivity via _peluwsa_ but he didn’t like to say anything out loud. Piccolo had seen that Dende hoped even the horrible man’s name might be forgotten if no one spoke it ever again. But he continued, “He took so much from me and I’m…I’m tired of him…tainting things. I’m ready. I can do anything with you, Piccolo.”

Piccolo touched Dende’s jaw and kissed him softly. “I’ll always make sure you’re safe. I’m sorry I was so slow. But never again. You’ll never get rid of me so easily again, Dende,” Piccolo said, “And…we don’t need to do them together. If you want to get blitzed, we can, but you don’t have to mix the two after…after everything. Let’s get a little stoned and see how you feel, okay?”

Dende’s body undulated above Piccolo, brushing his renewed hard-on over Piccolo’s and he breathed, “Mmm…I think you won’t put me off, my demon. I want you. I’ve wanted you too long and been denying myself out of misguided fear that…that it wouldn’t be good for you. That you would worry. So stop worrying. I promise I will tell you if anything doesn’t feel good. Someday, not this year, but next year, perhaps, I want to take you back to the festival and fuck you senseless in a vat of ajisa again, because it was all wonderful, wasn’t it? That day was the best and the worst of my whole life.”

“Yeah, I’m glad you noticed me, finally,” Piccolo teased. 

Dende ran his hand over Piccolo’s ridged abdomen and across his pecs and down on of his muscular arms, clearly appreciating Piccolo’s body. “I was a fool, I see that now. Piccolo…Do…do you still want children, even with…with everything?”

“Nothing that fucker did changed anything that I felt for you, except that I know now how strong you are. I know I better buckle up if I want to win an argument too, because holy shit, you are a stubborn man. And it all only makes me love you more. The past year has only strengthened all my feelings, Dende. So, yeah, I do. I hope…I hope you do too, because I want to have them with you. But I would choose you over that if you don’t want kids.”

Dende grinned and kissed Piccolo, rutting harder on Piccolo’s prick. He murmured against Piccolo’s mouth, his eyes barely open, but trying to find Piccolo’s, “Piccolo…I want to make you mine. I want us to mate properly. Do you want them _now_?”

Piccolo spread his hands on Dende’s pert little ass and widened his legs, rolling his hips up so Dende brushed his cock along Piccolo’s _theadur_. “Dende, I’ve been trying to get you to mate with me for fucking years, so yeah, I’m ready when you are. Put a baby in me, baby,” Piccolo said and chuckled.

“I don’t understand how you love me, my demon, but I’m so glad you do,” Dende purred and reached between their bodies. His delicate fingers slid up and down Piccolo’s slit.

Piccolo’s chest heaved. He hadn’t touched his _theadur_ since their time in the ajisa. It only made him sad when Dende was missing and since Dende had returned, Piccolo knew Dende wasn’t masturbating, so he hadn’t either, not that Dende would have cared. Piccolo never really felt like it. He hungered for Dende to touch him, but touching himself hadn’t had much appeal.

He growled, “You’re easy to love, baby. I love loving you. I want to love you forever.”

Dende’s cheeks purpled and a shy smile spread on his face. He kissed Piccolo more and Piccolo knew that Dende struggled with Piccolo professing his love. Dende still struggled to love himself. He struggled with self-loathing and anger at himself for what had happened, but Piccolo always nudged into those thoughts when he could. He always reminded Dende that no one could even imagine such a horrible thing, so it was no wonder that he hadn’t considered Ulitka a threat in that way. Piccolo felt Dende’s nerves now and his other fear.

“Dende, I don’t care. I’m not mad that you left me here. I’m mad at what he did. I’m mad that he made you suffer, but I know you did what you thought was right. I don’t…I don’t hold it against you. I just wish I could have saved you from such suffering,” Piccolo said, and he planted soft kisses along Dende’s jawline as he avoided Piccolo’s eyes.

“Piccolo…I know he’s gone…but…what if…what if I can’t mate properly because of…of…of what he did before he absorbed me?” Dende said and Piccolo saw him squeeze his eyes tightly shut to hide the tears that filled them.

Piccolo pulled Dende’s face to his mouth, kissed each eyelid, and said, “Baby, look at me. Go on, open up.” Dende reluctantly obeyed, his eyes darting away almost immediately. “Dende, first of all, it’s going to be fine. He’s dead. That’s just how it works—“

Dende interrupted and a few tears escaped, “But what if, what if because I was…a part of him…what if he’s…he’s somewhere inside me and I…I can’t?”

“Then I’ll love you anyway. We could try the dragon balls if you want. Or we can just love each other. You’re already my mate, regardless of where you’ve put your prick, or where I've put mine, Dende,” Piccolo said, clutching Dende’s face in between his hands, and tried to look in Dende’s eyes.

After several deep breaths, Dende’s dark eyes met Piccolo’s. “Do you mean that? Even if it meant you couldn’t have children?”

“Yeah, absolutely. I want you more than anything, Dende. I love you, regardless of whatever bullshit your _theadur_ tries to pull. But I don’t think it will. I think it will be fine. And I think once I’m pregnant so we don’t have to worry about me putting a Piccolo-sized baby in you, I will be able to fuck you until you can’t walk. But if I can’t, I can’t. I can fuck you lots of other ways. I promise we’ll have fun either way,” Piccolo said and wrapped his hand around Dende’s dick with a little grin. He guided Dende toward Piccolo’s slit and said, “So? Do you want to fuck me or not?”

Dende giggled and said, “Promise we can get high and make love after we mate?”

“Yeah, I promise, every day forever, if you want,” Piccolo said, smirking.

Dende pushed up on all fours, taking his cock away from Piccolo. “Now, now, I get to fuck _you_ , so settle down, my demon. Don’t rush me,” Dende said and kissed the tip of Piccolo’s dick and licked down the under side. He spread his small hands on Piccolo’s ass and lifted Piccolo’s hips. “I would like to be in charge, if that’s okay with you, my demon love?”

“My body is yours, baby,” Piccolo said, excited by the idea of Dende running the show. 

Dende thrust his tongue inside Piccolo with no preamble and Piccolo cried out and bucked toward the intense touch. Dende’s tongue was as skilled as the rest of him and Piccolo spread his legs wider so Dende could delve deeper inside him. Dende pulled his tongue out to lick around the outside, and growled, “My demon, I fear that I’m not going to give you much foreplay because I want to be inside you so badly.”

Dende’s muscular, coordinated tongue stroked inside Piccolo’s sheath again, and with anyone else, Piccolo would have been embarrassed about the mewling, needy noises he was making, but he knew Dende wouldn’t care. The wet heat pulsed inside Piccolo and it had been too long, he came in an explosive burst of muscle spasms, his _theadur_ kneading Dende’s tongue for a brief moment before Dende withdrew.

“Piccolo, gods, yes?” Dende said as he repositioned himself above Piccolo, gazing down at him with such fiery love that Piccolo’s whole belly heated.

“Yeah, fuck me, baby, fuck me hard,” Piccolo gasped, his hips rising up to meet Dende.

The hard, smooth thrust of Dende’s thick cock made Piccolo cry out. Dende sank into Piccolo up to the hilt with no hesitation and began to drive into his core with breathy cries. “Piccolo…oh, fucking gods, Piccolo. Tasting you was divine, but nothing like this. I feel…I feel like I’m a part of you. Like you are _mine_ ,” Dende rasped, his voice throaty and trembling.

Piccolo couldn’t speak he was so overwhelmed. Dende filled him up, and Piccolo was tight. He knew that _theadurs_ were not like asses, they didn’t require stretching, but the sudden, hot, rigid intrusion into the very center of his body set his mind reeling. Beneath the physical pleasure, perhaps on top of it as well, there was a profound new connection to Dende. He could hear and feel the echoes of what Dende was hearing and feeling. It was shockingly hot.

“I’ve got it too, my demon. It’s…oh Lord of Lords…I’m…I’m going to have to work on my stamina. You’re so tight. Just…just so tight, and you’re still clenching from my mouth, my love. I want to fuck you with my tongue constantly. I love pleasuring you, Piccolo,” Dende said, his hand cupping Piccolo’s face as his hips snapped hard against Piccolo. The contrast was strange, the tenderness of his touch and the roughness of his lovemaking, but it was perfect.

Words finally returned to Piccolo as Dende shifted his angle enough that Piccolo felt the ridge of Dende’s head slide along something so sensitive inside him. “Dende…I…I can’t hold on much longer,” Piccolo breathed and curled up to press his lips to Dende’s, to slip his tongue alongside his little mate’s and taste him.

Dende panted against his lips, “Come for me, Piccolo, I want to fill you with my seed. I want to give you babies. Please, my demon love, come on my cock.”

The warm breath of Dende's words across Piccolo’s pleasantly bruised, spit-slick lips set him off and he groaned. Heavy ropes of cum spurted on his belly, some hitting Dende too. Dende moaned and threw his head back, joining Piccolo’s climax so Piccolo felt his own pleasure overlaid by Dende’s. Dende slammed into him a final few times and the moment his semen poured into Piccolo, Piccolo wailed. It was an entirely different feeling, but it was clear that Piccolo’s sheath _craved_ his mate’s seed.

They surged together a final few times and Dende encouraged Piccolo to curl up and kiss him. Piccolo happily obliged, grinning into the kiss. Their antennae twined together, sending another thrill of pleasure through their bodies, their minds.

Dende eased out of Piccolo and it felt like Piccolo’s body disliked the absence, punished Piccolo for Dende taking his cock away. Piccolo winced, and to his confused surprise, Dende gave him a smug smirk in return. Piccolo said, “What is _that_ look for? That hurt! Why did it hurt?”

Dende chortled and kissed Piccolo more as he slid up his body, resting on his chest after another long, breathless kiss. “It means you are likely knocked up, my demon.”

Piccolo’s frown morphed into a shit-eating grin, his fangs were probably fully visible, top and bottom. “Seriously? That’s great!”

Dende kissed over Piccolo’s pecs and said, “Mmm…it is, isn’t it? I love you, my demon. Thank you for saving me. I suppose we’ll have to find a babysitter for the next ajisa festival.”

“Yeah, well, I have a few favors I can call in on that front,” Piccolo said and squeezed his mate. “We could have fifteen kids and I’d still find a way to get you in that vat again.”

“Likewise, Piccolo. It seems I have finally helped you to properly relax,” Dende said and squeezed Piccolo’s bicep, which was as soft as his muscles made possible in his blissed out state.

They drifted to sleep and Piccolo realized, when he woke the next morning, that it was the first night Dende hadn’t had even a brief period of restlessness or nightmares. Piccolo’s little mate slept peacefully in Piccolo’s arms. Piccolo smirked, kissed the top of Dende’s head, and thought maybe he’d taught Dende to relax too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking with me through a lot of slow updates! Hope you all enjoyed the journey!


End file.
